| Although written for Britain’s leading classic commercial vehicle magazine, Heritage Commercials, we now start a two-part article by Mike Berry to tell the story behind the new Vauxhall Heritage Services mobile display unit. |
January is never the best time of year to make a start on a major body restoration programme, especially when you only have the most basic working premises, which in my case was in the yard outside the Trans-Pennine Publishing company offices at Appleby. Within full view of the Pennines, and with gales blowing down (some at over 70 mph when I wrote this article), what I wouldn’t give for a nice warm workshop. |
That is not to say that everything we do is outdoor work, as I have the kind support of both the Appleby Heritage Centre and Robinson’s the local coach operator who let us come in from the cold when urgent jobs come to hand and none were quite as urgent as the one we got just before Christmas. At a meeting in mid-December it was decided that our Bedford YMQ-Duple Dominant II was going to be used during the 2002 rally season for the Vauxhall Heritage programme, and I was asked to undertake the preparatory work.
A detailed inspection of the coach was the first task, for although (at first glance) the outer appearance of the bus was quite good it did have a rather dreary blue and white colour scheme, with cream window pans. The new scheme was to be a pot puree of ideas taken from various sources and it was decided that the new livery would be based on that of the famous coach operator Baddeley Brothers from
Here we have a view of OUF 669W
in the battered, service-weary condition in which it arrived in Appleby.
|
