Monday, May 29, 2006

Sunny and Warm


I took the rear doors off the bomb today. The right rear door is rusted beyond repair. I'm not sure about the left door.

The left rear door does not have any collision damage. The door skin is rusted through at the bottom corner. The door frame has some rust but it looks like it could be repaired. Door skins are available as a repair part. I've never re-skinned a door. I'm sure replacing a door skin is much harder than it looks.

The bomb has a factory installed electric moon roof in the passenger compartment. I've never seen another taxi with this very rare option. Some London Taxis have a sunroof for the driver but never for the passengers.
Malcom over at the London Taxi group is adding a passenger compartment sunroof to his Fairway and has asked where the braces are installed. I've been looking for an excuse to rip out the water damaged headliner. As allways, you can click on the pictures for a larger view. There are brackets welded in over the rear door openings. They appear to take most of the weight of the sunroof and the compartment the glass goes into when the roof is open. This first photo is from the left side looking up.
This view is looking across to the right side. There are two brackets on each side. The first one is the black thing with 3 slots. The other bracket is just to the right. It is still covered with insulation. The passenger compartment lamps are mounted to wood blocks!

There are drain lines at all four corners of the moonroof. Both rear drain hoses are disconnected. Water from the sunroof drains is what ruined the old headliner. The disconnected hoses may also be the cause of the some of the body rust. The sunroof motor is at the back. There may be another bracket there. The batteries died on my camera before I could take a look.

This plaque is mounted at the front of the passenger compartment above the partition window. It reads "This Quality built automobile has been custom manufactured to the specifications of its purchaser to insure the utmost in durability, comfort, and passenger well-being." Durability?

My Sterling is production number 0032. Build Date is 02/1986. If you have a London Coach please leave your production number and build date in a comment.