Bernards bits!

Over the weekend we've worked out everything that we will need to rebuild Bernard's nearside wooden "Luton"! We also started him up again and this time his clutch wasn't seized. I spoke to Mr Oakley at Oakley horseboxes last week and yes, he has all of the parts that we need. So in the next few weeks we will be taking the whole of this section to pieces:

It doesn't look too bad in the photo, but we know that when we did the first restoration of this area almost six years ago, it had been attacked by death watch beetle and the damage they caused had allowed water to seep in causing rot, especially behind the ash upright. We replaced the ash curve because there was nothing left of the original and we let in small sections of mahogany to repair the planking behind the upright, but we always knew that it was a short term solution. Likewise the glass fibre roof section had been so bashed over the years and had been so badly repaired that we knew that this too would need more work later. So taking this whole section to pieces will allow us to replace the planks, repair the roof and replace the guttering. Doesn't sound like much when you put it like that does it?!! However, this has got to be done and the whole truck restored by...............April 29th, because we are at our first exhibition on May Day.