17th. Put a second coat of undercoat all round the lower deck. The middle and upper decks must wait until I can borrow a tower-platform again. Doing the painting from the bottom up is not ideal, but cannot be helped. Have entered the bus for Showbus in September, so would like it looking reasonable by then.

I have at last settled on colours for the topcoat - I want it to be East Kent colours of crimson and ivory. The fact that this bus has never been near East Kent is not important to me- we'll see what others make of it.

18th. Booked MOT, to give myself a target for making the bus driveable and presentable (though not finished!). Mid-July.

19th.Got a small tin of ivory and crimson topcoat, and tried them out on one panel. The ivory is just as I expected, but the red seems too bright - too much like pillar-box red, at least when brand new. I shall try to obtain a more true crimson.

19th. With the MOT in mind I renewed attack on the front nearside wheel. This looked in poor shape, with rust blistering through the paint, but as I hacked this off I found sound metal underneath, and believe the wheel does not need replacing.

22nd. After a hard-working weekend, the nearside of the bus is almost totally undercoated at last.

28th. After adding another level to the tower I was able to inspect the state of the roof. All panels peeling badly, but I shall not be clambering onto the centre of the roof to scrape off and repaint, so the bus will remain "tonsured". At least it seemed still to be waterproof.