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Refurbishment of RM 1563

Thirty seven years ago tonight, Mortlake Garage closed. Our `showbus` RM 1563 has been in preservation since 1989 and in my ownership from 2011 since when I have struggled to find the time to get stuck into any meaningful restoration progress to remove the decay that has set in during years of storage. From never having enough time, I now have endless time and over the past five weeks have refurbished the lower deck.




The leather cloth on the side walls was too `tired` to paint over. It needed replacing. Easy when you have new, original stuff available. Mortlake RM`s had a conduit running along the offside wall in which the wiring for an early form of radio was housed. Long redundant, there was no real need to keep it.



Getting the old leather cloth off was easy. Getting the glue deposits off wasn`t. Not a great job using a sander on an upright surface without `diggin in`.




Before fixing the new leather cloth, the ceiling was painted.



A leather cloth roll is the width of two walls but not enough for the beading strips. It was reckoned that each side could be done as a complete length.




A trial run was done by rolling the leather cloth around a broom handle to see if unwinding it would be the way to slowly glue it into place. It looked to be possible.




Trimbond spray adhesive was recommended. Good stuff, easy to use. Wall and leather cloth both sprayed. The bond is almost instant with just a few seconds to unpick and adjust if needed.




Three pairs of hands are ideal for fixing in one complete length. One to hold the material, one to spray the glue and one to firm into place using a dry rag to carefully rub the cloth into position without any creases. Having had experience of fitting vinyl adverts, I found this to be helpful. It took three hours with a break halfway to do both sides.



I`ve never regretted my strategy of twice yearly squirting WD40 at anything I might later want to take a spanner, screwdriver or T key to. All of these fixings came off reasonably easily despite warnings that the top brackets are a nightmare to shift. Left in a bucket of cola overnight got them clean to brush and paint.



Ideally these have to be painted in two hits so that there is always a part to hold that isn`t wet paint.




It wasn`t really necessary to mark out where the fixing holes would be under the new leather cloth as the holes could be felt by guessing roughly where and then pressing to make a gentle dent before piercing.



Painted parts of the seat frames were washed and rubbed down prior to painting and polished parts gently treated with fine wire wool.




In the heat of yesterday afternoon all of the seat pieces were washed with carpet cleaner and put in the sun
to dry - which was so quick that they were in the bus a couple of hours later.

So, there it is looking like it`s fresh out of Aldenham. That`s the appearance I prefer. Nothing `over the top`. Just to look as people would remember it in service. Next to do is the platform and staircase....

My bus number (if any): RM 1563

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Looking good Neil interesting photos, this down time does have its advantages for some people with projects to get stuck in on Good that you have original Leathercloth valuable, hopefully it will be more friendly than the Ratchfords replacement to stretch over that notorious shaped OS stair corner and top deck curved panels unless you are just painting them ? - good luck - Graham

My bus number (if any): RML 2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Also I’m sure that you are aware but when you get to the the upper deck the front two upper seat bosses are different from the rest as they are set at a different angle as the body tapers inwards - 👍

My bus number (if any): RML 2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Looking good Neil, well worth the time and effort.

My bus number (if any): RM238

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Excellent job Neil, reminds me of my years crawling about the lower saloon floor doing all the mods. When the trimmers cut in strips of rexine on overhauls they did it at a slant so as to hide the join behind a squab. Luckily at Aldenham waist rail mouldings came pre-covered.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RM 1585, RML 2667 and several RTs

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Yes, it reminded me of years past when crawling around on the lower deck floor was much easier to do than it is now. My head still thinks I`m in my twenties but the rest of me seems to have moved on forty years with all the aches that come with age!

With thanks to you, Brian, for putting me in touch with the original 1986 tin of burgundy gloss that was sale a couple of years ago. It was like new when opened and it`s coming in very useful now. Would you know how the black glaze was put over the Park Royal plate please? Mine had corrosion that in gently trying to remove it also quickly took that black glaze off. I did wonder if considerably thinning some cab Matt Black would work.

My bus number (if any): RM 1563

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

I don't know of a way of restoring the brass or steel body plates. I learnt very quickly not to put anything abrasive on them as the top coat soon disappeared. I'll ask on the various forum pages if anyone knows.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RM 1585, RML 2667 and several RTs

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

I’ve found that some of the aerosol clear lacquers available can react with some of the existing paint surfaces you are trying to protect sadly.

My bus number (if any): RML2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Sorry forgot to put my second name on the previous post

My bus number (if any): RML2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

I’ve found it’s handy to keep any plastic aerosol caps as when you put them upside down you can rest small items such as seat bosses and panel straps across them while painting to minimise contact and sticking to other surfaces while drying etc 👍

My bus number (if any): RML 2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Looking really good Neil. Well worth the effort.

Did you clean up the lower aluminium coving at the same time? If so what was your method. We have this task to come shortly.

Paul

My bus number (if any): RM2059

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Hi Paul

Yes, the coving panels were cleaned. No secret quick fix - just a lot of crawling around on the floor giving them a good scrub with hot water and hard surface cleaner applied with a basic green scouring pad of the type used for saucepans. When dry, the coving panels were rubbed with a mild wire wool to encourage a shine but it`s best to go horizontal or vertical (preferred) and not a mix of both. Try doing a little patch in both directions to see how haphazard it looks. After the wire wool, a quick wipe with a damp cloth will pick up the wire grains. The whole task is significantly easier when there are no seat frames in the way as with them in situ it`s difficult to progress fast and continuous without missing bits.

My bus number (if any): RM 1563

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Neil Goodrich
Hi Paul

Yes, the coving panels were cleaned. No secret quick fix - just a lot of crawling around on the floor giving them a good scrub with hot water and hard surface cleaner applied with a basic green scouring pad of the type used for saucepans. When dry, the coving panels were rubbed with a mild wire wool to encourage a shine but it`s best to go horizontal or vertical (preferred) and not a mix of both. Try doing a little patch in both directions to see how haphazard it looks. After the wire wool, a quick wipe with a damp cloth will pick up the wire grains. The whole task is significantly easier when there are no seat frames in the way as with them in situ it`s difficult to progress fast and continuous without missing bits.
Thanks Neil,

Similar to what we had planned then but hoping for a quicker solution. There usually isn't one!

My bus number (if any): RM2059

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

For the aluminium kick plates etc I use diluted Selalite catering aluminium cleaner and descaler in a spray bottle and a toothbrush to get into the embossing - After rinsing and drying I tried using metal polish but it made it worse as it got into all the scratches and made them show up more as you can’t polish it away leaving them as black lines. So the suggested fine wire wool approach is favourite to bring them back up a bit .

My bus number (if any): RML 2747

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Thanks for the info Graham. Always handy to have several methods to try.

My bus number (if any): RM2059

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

Many years ago I worked at the model shop in York Way next to kings Cross station. that shop was probably the first to produce etched locomotive name plates.

One of my jobs was to spray them red or back or whatever the background colour was. This was usually a cellulose motor spray. but then the problem was the same as for the bus body plates. The answer was to to wait for the paint to dry and harden, the get a flat sheet of 1000 wet and dry the rub the nameplate on that to get the paint off the raised lettering. The do the same with brasso on a flat cloth to polish it up. What this won't do is restore any chrome plating that is on the body plate.

It ought to be possible to get new body plates chemically etched if someone can produce the artwork.

My bus number (if any): RML2532

Re: Refurbishment of RM 1563

For fixing leathercloth/rexine I use an alpha Adhesives spray-on stuff that comes in 5 lite cans. It needs to be applied from a proper spray gun at about 60psi and it's a great deal cheaper than small aerosol cans. It also has a long "tack" time so if you make a mistake it's fairly easy to correct. What is also has is a very high melting point. I found many years ago talking to a rep from Wardle Storey who used to make all sorts of leathercloth that temperatures inside motor vehicles can reach well over 150c at times!

A lot of the "can" aerosols can't achieve that sort of performance, so be warned! Good luck. Thsi week the weather has been excellent for rexine-ing as the material is more pliable and the adhesive I use sprays a lot easier. I've put some pice on the RT/RF owners group on FB of some of the bits for BEA MLL721 that I've done this week.

My bus number (if any): RML2532