Progress on Pete’s fire bus

Pete writes…

So today I got my beloved burnt out bus back from the breakdown yard and got my first chance to look at it since I left it burnt out on the side of the A45 in Northampton.

It took a bit of effort o get it off the flatbed due to its lowness and 2 melted rear tyres but with help from a forklift raising the back end and the driver dragging the flatbed away from under it we got it off.

Got it straight up on the axel stands to see what it was like underneath.

Not too bad….anything rubber or plastic related had just melted, cv boots, flexi hoses for the breaks etc, but the gearbox and main chassis looked ok if not a bit scorched. The bottom half of the engine looked ok too, the top was pretty bad though.

The cab had completely melted, it was still attached to the inlet manifold but it looked like death.

All the electrical wires where stripped of their coating and the battery was completely melted as well with just the lead plates remaining.

We left the underside for now and concentrated on the interior.

It was really bad in there. Completely gutted, everything was bunt and it stank!

First job was to remove all our clothes beading etc from the back. There wasn’t much to save, if it wasn’t burnt it was soaking wet from the water used to put out the fire. Certain things where ok, James’ shaving bag which had shaving foam, moisturiser etc in it was a bit bunt the contents was completely fine.

After that we moved onto anything that was under the seat and got the seat out itself.

With the seat out we shoved up the rest of the shit and pulled of what was left off the floor.

The wooden base underneath seamed in quite good condition!

After that we got all the door cards off and pulled out the dash and the front seat.

With all the mess cleaned out the back.

We then took it round the back for a good blast with the pressure washer to dry and remove some of the dirt.

After this we when rolled it across into Mikes workshop to start the strip down of the engine.

Some of the items that kind of survived the fire

Rock and roll bed

Stereo