1st. The bus arrives in Dean, on the back of a low-loader hired from Rob Masters Ltd of Wellingborough. It survived the 2 hour journey from South Yorkshire unscathed.

The sideview reveals a surprising amount of fresh air!

The low-loader deposited the vehicle exactly where requested, behind a barn, so I was able to drive the DMS in front of it.

2nd The first job seemed to be to take out all the seats so that I could give the interior a more thorough inspection.

The interior is revealed.

This picture of the offside stress panel shows where the real restoration has to start.

The panels are suprisingly clean, and I will probably reuse most of them. To the right is the (original?) Alexander lettering, and below left is the attractive logo on the boot doors. Below right are two side panels.

5th. With help of RT-owner and knowledgeable friend Rob Duker, I connected batteries from the DM and tried the starter. Absolutely nothing! We soon established that no power was available to anything. But after fiddling, we discovered a master switch, and when that was switched on, a power light came on! Hurrah! The starter switch still refused to work, despite copious applications of WD40, but Rob eventually shorted the switch and succeeded in getting the solenoid in the starter motor to "click" - but no more. So the next step would seem to be to remove the starter motor and attempt to clean it up.

We also succeeded in getting one of the indicators to "glow", rather unenthusiasitcally. All in all, qualified failure...

6th. A visit to the local Village Blacksmith looks as if it may pay dividends, because Bob agreed to come and take a look at the work to be done on renewing the stress panels. Since most of his work is now working on agricultural machinery, and he has all the facilities for welding on site, this is good news!

So I spent an hour clearing the area round the nearside front bay, stripping old lino (and saving a bit to tout round the local suppliers) and removing timber. The outer 2" of floor has rotted, but most is very sound. Does anyone know a source of old hessian-backed lino (dark green), or will I need to use vinyl over a thin ply layer?