Nick´s 1:1 #5c

[SMS88]

It has had a repaint and new plates, for sale on ebay Italy for a mere 30,000 euros!!!

http://www.ebay.it/itm/AEC-Routemaster- ... 0948543031

[mcnair55]

You need your head feeling to pay 30,000 for that load of junk.There are far better examples around.

[Tinman]

I remember it was pretty nice when Nick owned it.

[nickjones]

I paid £2800 for it, it was running and roadworthy and had not long been out of service with London Transport.
We spent the winter doing the roof chops and used 6000 pop rivets putting it back together,
The outer body side panels were lowered 1 foot to give the impression that the lower deck had been chopped and the upper deck was chopped by 2 feet, one foot removed from the windows and one foot removed from the sides so the bus looked like it had a foot removed from each deck but in reality the lower deck was normal height and the upper deck was 2 feet lower.

We removed most of the seats from the lower deck and fitted a bar, beer cooler and CD jukebox so we had cold beer on tap and sounds.
We cut the legs off of all the seats that did not have the seat to roof handrails and fitted them to the upper deck but they were fitted down the sides facing inwards giving us 2 bench seats which ran the length of the bus, its upper deck seating capacity was increased from 28 to 32.

We used it as club transport for the Smoke City Wheelers, a London based custom car club and took it on many long journeys to car shows across the UK and had lots of all night parties that included lots of cold draft beer and naked ladies.
We kept it for several years and eventually sold it to the Welsh museum of transport for £3000.
I know it was bought by someone that used it to go to the world cup in Germany and later it had the paneling removed from the lower deck which effectively unchopped the bottom half and completely ruined its unique looks.

[nickjones]

The plates were the ones we got for it as it was an A reg when we got it, XMD 79A if memory serves me right, But we also had a set made up that read LOL1D (LO LID)
You can see a few more pics of the build at
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=smoke ... master+bus and click "images"

It also made wikipedia
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... 281%29.jpg

I believe it is the only double decker bus to have been driven through Londons Blackwall tunnel, having driven it through myself on more than one occasion.

The asking price of 30,000 euros converts to almost £26,000.

[mrmoko]

Hi Nick , Love the flame job, Is this how it was when you owned it ? As in the bottom pic ? Gaz

[Ewan]

Blast from the past - I remember that Routemaster from either Street Machine or Custom Car back in the day

[nickjones]

Hi Nick , Love the flame job, Is this how it was when you owned it ? As in the bottom pic ? Gaz

I helped fellow club member Richard Timms apply the flames, We kept them on for a while but later painted it red again.
Ewan, It did appear in Custom Car and Street Machine magazines, Tim Baggley was a writer for Custom Car mag and he soon became a club member too.
My Dad had quite a shock when driving across the Mojave desert he stopped for gas and went in to pay for the gas and saw the bus on the cover of a US custom mag, Probably my best memory was when I was driving through town when a couple of nubile young ladies noticed the destination blind and burst into uncontrollable laughter when they read "69 special service" and almost wet themselves.

[matchbox360]

Hi Nick, fascinating story about your customised bus.. it's the nearest I've ever seen to a Hot Rod double decker. The flames on the side make it look very 'Superfast', more of a RouteBlazer than a RouteMaster?

All the best,

Ken

[zBret]

What a neat machine!
I'm sure it was a lot of good times building it, as well as cruising around in it, when it was finished.
Looking through the pics on the link you put up Nick , I happened to come across this one. That looks like you up topside, albeit with a tad more hair
zBret