After devoting many man hours to the extensive restoration & conversion work on two ex-London RML Routemasters, work is now progressing apace on other projects, including the King Alfred Panther 419.The bus has come to the BusWorks for a complete roof rebuild and as can be seen in this view, the roof has been stripped down to its basic frame. This revealed that many of the roof joints were rotten or broken, but also the exceptional amount of timber and little strenthening steelwork. This was a feature of the traditional Plaxton coachwork of the period, but even so the full length timber cant & waist rails were unusual by the early 1970s.
Unfortunately, the stripping of the roof has revealed weaknesses elsewhere in the structure of the bodywork - typical though of the 36ft. long 'Derwent' style bodies.
