Its been a long time coming this artical. Tristan and Patient dad Richard have been coming here to Indian for many years now, and travelling from the Ryde area. The Orange Blossom Special as we affectionatly call it has been well loved and it shows.

Body repairs in progress.

Well all things come to an end and Tristan thought the Orange Blossom Special had seen better days, tied of the shiny look and after something a little more untidy. I have a thing about rusty looking buses, the Rat Look appeals to me, so I have a few in my collection, but Tristan settled for this its a rat called Rusty.

Tristan asked us to repair all the rust and not paint or primer any of it, just leave it bare metal as he wanted to use Lanolin to protect the surface like we do with Vanwinkle.

Old floor new floor, looking down on the right hand side.

From see threw to new once again.

Starting to come together like one neat jigsaw puzzle.

Inner sills both sides and actually the complete lower section including the door track on the left hand side was replaced. A falt battery tray to complete the flat attack on Rusty.

Sill ends all round and the sill section just in front of the rear wheel arches on both side were replaced as well.

Some of the sweet features about this old bay, the red turret and the plastic badge. Plastic doesnt rust but man

doesnt get some charictor when its old and weathered.

Tristan basicly left us to it, just complete the rust and DONT primer it, but the suspension was another story. This being his third bay, and his third lowered bay, he had his mind set on what he wanted this time and the list went something like this. Keep in mind this had to all be legal and come with an engineers report.

Up front, adjustable front beam, short shocks, trim out excess metal in the inner guards and stiffeners for about a 7" drop.

In the rear, adjustable rear spring plates, drop plates and short shocks. The rims came from a T4 with the centres moved for a better off set and the centre of the rim were machined out for the hubs. These came off Tristans old bus. Actually all the running gear came from Tristans old Orange blossom special.

Tristan moved to Qld with his new job after Uni for many years so we wont get to see the bus again for a while Im guessing, but no doubt it will be noticed on Qld roads. 

Much much more to come, stay tuned.

Chief