mat_fenwick wrote:
Sorry for my flippant comments earlier. I did truly think that Graham was a name given to your favourite bus that had been scrapped rather than sold to you!
No apolagies required mate, I failed to appreciate that no-one on here would actually know who Graham was as I've not discussed him on here before.
Alas 132 (my fave bus) is just called 132, although since the company went to the Sema Voyager system it became 67132, although it will always be 132 to me.
At the moment it's still on the road, but it's days are numbered until July 27th..
If it doesn't work out then thats life, it's only a lump of mixed metals after all, but I've put 10 years of tinkering into that bus, and I want it.
What really pisses me off about the whole thing is that 132 is actually in exceptional condition structurally, unlike most of the other Lances we have, given that it's had 3 MAJOR front end collisions so it's spent 2 years off the road whilst it was rebuilt, and mechanically it's like new.
The only reason it's the first to go is that the MoT runs out on July 27th, and since 2 Lances have to go 132 and 1228 are the two selected. Even though I'm sure it'd piss through another class 6. Although it black smokes badly at the moment and cuts out / idles like a bag of shit. The engineers cannot work out why!
Despite me having told them it's because the tappets have closed up, as Cummins C series engines do, but they are too fucking stupid to work that out and even more clueless with feeler gauges.
I would do it myself, as I have before but since the advent of H&S blue sky thinking and the installation of CCTV if I was caught I'd be fucked right royally... and it aint a five minute job on a Lance.
As I said before, I really do work for a bunch of C^&TS.
Marty (or Big M!) alas no, although the Lynx with the odd front end caused a massive stir round these parts I can tell you!
It's all extremley hush hush at the moment so I cant say anything much (mainly cos it aint my place to do so and nothings set in stone yet) BUT, the dude thats risking rather alot to get this thing off the ground is looking to the future and decided that Lynxes (whilst they are fucking brilliant buses) are not what the company needs, since by definition they cant ever be DDA compliant, and everything after 2015 MUST be DDA compliant, so we're looking at Mk2 low floor Lances with Pathfinder bodies, or maybe if the budget stretches far enough Volvo B10BLE's with Renown bodies.
It's all still very much early days yet, and it may all still come to nought, but things are looking more and more likely, his acountant seems happy enough with the figures we have so far, my mates wife is very supportive and those of us involved are determined to make it work.
Guess what job I'll have if it happens!
I'll have a three lane fully equipped workshop all to myself! Bliss!
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.... and it sends text messages too..... 
