KEL131
In September 2019 KEL131, a 1950 Weymann bodied Leyland Titan PD2/3 arrived in South West Devon for restoration. Restoration has required the removal of all seating to allow the old flooring to be pulled up and replaced, as well as to have the sides re-fabriced. One of the guards over the wheelarch has had to be added custom made, as well as parts being taken from scrapped donor sister bus, KEL127. This model also has large numbers of wooden panels which surround the windows, as well as line the roof, which have all been removed, sanded and re-varnished. The arrival of Covid in 2020 saw advancements inevitably stall, but by the start of this year work on her has returned as normal. With the upper deck largely completed work is now focused on the lower deck, cab and staircase. Window pans are soon to be re-fitted, which when done will allow for the wooden window surrounds to be re-fitted. The cab has now been sanded down and prepared for painting, as well as having its chrome parts cleaned up.
Left: 131 pictured stored at Winkleigh back in 2012, along with sister bus 110 and Atlantean 277, XRU277K.
Right: Arriving at her new home back in the late summer of 2019 where the start of her restoration would begin.
Left: The upper deck of 131 was in pretty decent condition considering her age, however to replace her worn out flooring all the seating was removed to allow access, plus it then made re-painting the seat frames a lot easier!
Below Left/Right: The lower deck, which on arrival was used as a store for various parts, was unsurprisingly in rather less good nick, with some of the wooden window sections missing. Dampness had also affected the lower section a bit more as well, which made the removal of many of the pieced harder as most of the screws and fitting where rusted or corroded over. Happily the actual wooden flooring itself was in very good condition still.
Above: By Winter of 2019 the upper-deck had been stripped out, and at the start of 2020 the wooden frames sanded down and re-varnished.
Sanding down of the exterior started in early 2020
Upper deck new flooring down, and side panels re-covered, followed by the seating brought back up and placed ready to be drilled and screwed down.
After a long pause on work due to covid work re-started in fits and starts over the Autumn/Winter of 2020, with the lower deck then the main focus of the work.
This period also saw 131 fired up in order for it to be re-positioned to allow better access to its offside exterior.
Summer 2021 and some of the offside lower windows have been removed
Winter 2021/2022 and the wheelarches are re-sprayed and the cab sanded down and preped for re-paint.
Spring 2022, with 3 new window pans having been ordered and brought back to Devon, Phil and myself went through the process of fitting them onto 131. The 3 pans are for the lower offside, and required trimming in order to matchup with the originals. It took us around half a day to measure them up, trim them down and rivet them into place.
June 2022, and after the new flooring downstairs had been laid down the process of fitting the seats back could be undertaken.
