LONDON TRANSPORT RF512 Restoration, Part 1 Bodywork

Part 1 of 3 - Exterior bodywork & structural repairs.

RF512 is arguably the very last of this class to be used by London Transport on the final day of service at Kingston Bus Garage on Saturday 31st March 1979. Although it was not used for a scheduled service it did take part, along with RF510 & RF511 in a commemorative trip around south west London carrying fare paying passengers and returning to Kingston Bus Garage as the last of the final three. This day marked the end of RF operation by London Transport and the remainder of the fleet was immediately withdrawn.

Between 1950 and 1953 a total of 700 RFs were produced for London Transport, RF512 was delivered new in late 1952 and received four overhauls during its 27 years of service. After withdrawal by London Transport it was purchased by a Welsh company but it was withdrawn again and sold into private ownership by the mid 1980s.

The current owners (Thisbus.com) purchased RF512 in 2012 for restoration back to passenger carrying condition. In the years preceding 2012 some remedial repairs had been carried out but these were deemed to be unsatisfactory for class 6 operation and everything was started again from scratch.

This restoration comes in three parts, this one is the external bodywork and structure work, Part 2 covers the internal restoration and paint finishing and Part 3 details the major mechanical repairs.

Music: Mario Bava Sleeps In a Little Later Than He Expected To by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/vendaface/
Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/