1973 Bedford Plaxton Panorama Elite II

[samwise]

This 'ere is my bus. I've had her a long time, since the mid 90's, when I converted her to a mobile home, and finally between 98 and 2000, drove her to India and back. She was super reliable on that trip, only minor issues (you might have seen it written up in Practical Classics a year or two ago). When we got back, she was running lovely, but had some minor cosmetic issues (such as lack of windscreens). Ever since, she's been laid up in an old closed down farm site, costing me £40 a month (which is obscene). I sold her in about 02, but bought her back about 3 years ago - the lad who bought her started tidying the interior, but evidently got bored. Since then, I've done nothing. The biggest problem is that she's far away from my house and tools, and I have precious little time to spare.

This summer, I'm planning to bring her home (a little worried what the traveller neighbour kids may do to her). I have hard standing beside my house that about 60% of her will sit on, the rest sticking into the front garden - I'll have to take down a carport to get her in. Then, work begins in earnest. She needs at least lots of love and grease, but also some bodywork, new screens, wipers, interior tidying some more (and perhaps modifying - she was designed to go to India and back, and I won't be doing that again). It's going to be a big job! First, I have to figure out how to get her home - I'm wondering how much commercial recovery people charge? I'm fairly sure I can get her running, which I'll have to do to get her where I want her. Wish me luck, ask me questions, offer me help and ideas (please!) - here she is.

[samwise]

Dammit, for some reason my Flickr pics won't load here. I'll have to photobucket those ones.

[street]

Fantastic! I bet it will be a challenging project, but most certainly a rewarding one.
There's loads of vintage bus lovers on here, I know TCC will be interested for definate!
Looking forward to the rest of the pics

[Oldbus]

Nice to see another proper "old bus" on here. ;D

Welcome aboard.

[skoda_norman]

I saw this in PC. Pleased to see its still in loving care.

Brave man for taking it on, but hey... it'll be cool when done.

[samwise]

Here are the other pics

[bazzateer]

Read the article too. Cool as..........

[samwise]

Cheers! I have a lot to thank that article for - it was my first published piece, but off that back of that I did Why We Love for Praccy Classics for a year, and am the biggest contributor to Acoustic (a specialist acoustic guitar magazine). Whole new vistas, I tell you! But I still suck at fixing cars, so now is the time to learn.....

[jrevillug]

Fantastic.

I too read the PC article - an awesome journey, with a brilliant write-up.

I'm not envious. Nope. Not at all.

Good luck with your project - and especailly with finding the glass.

James

[samwise]

Somebody from the BX forum believes they have located some for me. I'm worried though, as the surround (which is fibreglass) is iffy. And I have no idea about installing glass. Mostly those two things!

[Deleted]

hey sam ! really enjoyed the writeup in the magaZine, glad to see your going to bestow some TLC on her again, was almost sad to read she was parked up dormant after the journey.
if you want to PM me where you want to get her to and from where I can make some enquiries with the haulage companies that use our company for paintwork and stuff.. you never know !

[DutyFreeSaviour]

I've still got that copy sitting here somewhere...... was in awe of the journey pal. Excellent write up and glad to see she's still knocking around.
Good luck with the rebuild - no learning like doing

[grizz]

Great and inspiring article when I read it.

Hope you get everything done with her as planned.

[poproddernot]

hi,
they had one of them at high school when i was there, smoked like hell when cold.........and hot!!!
good luck.
cheers chris.

[dave21478]

Anyone got a scan of the magazine article? Id love the read it.

[samwise]

I haven't got a scanner, but I do have a PDF of the middle pages of the mag. I also have the Word document, if you can live without the pics! This one doesn't (or didn't) smoke, we'll see what it's like when I get her running again. Rottie - I'll drop you a PM - I've no idea what the likely costs of having it moved are, but I'd like to!

I've got to get her running (should just be a matter of new battery terminals, and then cranking her over til she fires - last done two years ago. Hope the batteries are alive!), free off a likely stuck parking brake, see how the brake system (air over hydraulic) deals with coming up to pressure, and then remove the carport you can sort of see in the picture below, and I'll be ready to get her home:





Oh, and I just found a pic from 10 years ago, in Turkey. Can't remember if this made the mag or not. I was a skinny jolly pain in the backside in them days!

[Lankytim]

I read it too, epic journey indeed!

Good to see the old coach is still around. You should beable to get away with a suspended tow (front wheels off the ground) rather than a full flatbed recovery truck. Theres quite a few HGV garages about with "wreckers" that could help you out. Where abouts are you and how far has she got to go? Ill ask about the HGV community for you.

*edit*

I think that pic did make it into PC.

[samwise]

I'm in Southampton, and she's about 8 miles away in West Wellow. It's a relatively easy journey - she's a couple of hundred yards from the A36, a couple of miles on that, a couple on the M27, down the M271, and I'm practically at the bottom. The only potential challenge is that my road is heavily parked, so I'd need to run it down there during the day. It's a cul-de-sac, with a little green at the end, and we face onto the green, with no direct road access, so she has to negotiate all the cars, hop the curb (hell, I drove her over a landslip once), and then maneuver in, so I won't want a wet or muddy day either! I need to seriously set a timetable for ripping out that carport.

[Lankytim]

Ok, ill ask now.....


......These people operate on your area. Have a chat with them and if your flexible with the day you want it done you could have the coach moved as a backload when they are on the way back from somewhere else. Should be cheaper that way.

www.boarhunt.co.uk/rescuerecovery.html

Ill let you know if any other suggestions come up.

[mortcars]

ohh looks very cool, anyone got a scan / pdf of the artical?