Barndoor Deluxe Restoration Story

Barndoor Deluxe Restoration Story Blimin' nora...what have I gone and done now!! Yep I have bought another rust bucket. This time a rather rare rust bucket. This is a deluxe bus built in 1953 chassis number 20 056472..........Wooooo! There are only 18 deluxes from the year 1953 still known to exist and only 7 of these are in Europe (both East and West).
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Yes it is indeed a good looking bus...... especially in the dark.

Another misleading picture also in the dark.

This is the side (obviously!) which doesn't look that bad but the swathes of nasty black underseal up the side doesn't bode well. Underseal, I guess, by definition should be under the car......? Anyway I does look as if it is quite rotten in the lower 30 cm.

The roof here is very rotten, most of it was fibreglass, I will have a lot of work here especially around the cab.

The bulk head has been chopped out by someone at some stage. This is going to be a bit of a problem as not only is finding another one very difficult but also because there was originally a chassis number stamped into the top right hand corner of the bulkhead. So, I guess I will have to search out some correct sized punches in order to re-stamp my chassis number here. Can anyone help?

The best thing about this bus is that it should have a clock (right picture) which matched the backward clock speedo (left picture). This clock was only used for a very short period in 1953 of around 6 to 7 months. Before this time a non-matching beetle style clock was used whilst in late 1953 both the design of the speedo and also the clock changed.

You might have noticed that I said "should have a clock" in the paragraph above. Unfortunately the mangled remains of a clock shown on the right is what I actually own!!!
Hopefully with this awful mess and the photos above sent to me by Mark Rafferty (Thanks a lot Mark) a company in the UK, Bedford Dials, thinks that they can restore it. Lets hope so.

Yep!!! The clock is back and unrecognisable! The job Bedford dials has done is absolutely great. After a bit of a problem with colour, which they fixed for free, the clock is now perfect. They had to repair the mechanism, make new hands, design and print the face, chrome the ring, and get out all the dents. They made a fine job of it too, I can't recommend them enough. I have the rights to the dial pattern so if you have a 53 deluxe and a clock to fix, then I'm your man!

To put the icing on the cake here is a Blaupunkt radio to go in the centre. Mmmmm lovely at least the dash is going to look great if nothing else!

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	Yes it is indeed a good looking bus...... especially in the dark.
	Another misleading picture also in the dark.
	This is the side (obviously!) which doesn't look that bad but the swathes of nasty black underseal up the side doesn't bode well. Underseal, I guess, by definition should be under the car......? Anyway I does look as if it is quite rotten in the lower 30 cm.

You might have noticed that I said "should have a clock" in the paragraph above. Unfortunately the mangled remains of a clock shown on the right is what I actually own!!! Hopefully with this awful mess and the photos above sent to me by Mark Rafferty (Thanks a lot Mark) a company in the UK, Bedford Dials, thinks that they can restore it. Lets hope so.
Yep!!! The clock is back and unrecognisable! The job Bedford dials has done is absolutely great. After a bit of a problem with colour, which they fixed for free, the clock is now perfect. They had to repair the mechanism, make new hands, design and print the face, chrome the ring, and get out all the dents. They made a fine job of it too, I can't recommend them enough. I have the rights to the dial pattern so if you have a 53 deluxe and a clock to fix, then I'm your man!

To put the icing on the cake here is a Blaupunkt radio to go in the centre. Mmmmm lovely at least the dash is going to look great if nothing else!