So the bus was home, every night over the next few weeks we would go to the garage and spend some time staring at it in disbelief.

The 55 has already been welded by Dick the previous owner , all the rotten had been blasted away and Dick has spent a lot of years welding in all the panels needed, the usual lower areas all around the bus, he also has fitted an adjustable narrow beam, raised the steering box, installed a type 3 gearbox, with short axles and type 3 drums, with the original spring plates, notched, cut and then spacers added to a bracket which connects the drive shaft tubes. No engine and many other parts missing or in bad shape needing resto on there own.

I started noting down what has been done by dick, what parts I had, what needed to be done to get it on the road? what needed to be changed? and what parts needed to be brought? and of course who from? and in what order?

The paint decision is not so tricky:

 It needs paint so it will be painted, for me the original chestnut and sealing wax is the best colour combo so that's settled -

I did contemplate for a few weeks of doing the spray job myself at home in the garage,  ive done a little before and thought that i could pull off a fairly ok job, because one thing is for sure this bus is being built to use. But of course it would never be the same as a pro job and take me for ever.

then Peka came over to take a look and talk about body work and paint and things changed.