Transition of First Bus vehicles to a fleet-wide purple and grey livery is being helped by the recent installation of a new paint spray booth at the First Potteries depot in Adderley Green, Stoke-on-Trent.
It currently completes between 2.5 and three buses per week for the Manchester, Midlands and South Yorkshire business unit. The unit can store heat from the baking stage and re-use it, minimising the environmental impact of the painting process.
While many of the initial repaints carried out were Bee Network yellow for buses used on franchised services in Greater Manchester, more recently the focus has been on the new national livery. First Potteries has recruited two commercial vehicle painters for the booth, alongside two semi-skilled staff that handle preparation.
While it was previously anticipated that third-party commercial work would form part of the new unit’s workload, the group has now decided that the Adderley Green paint booth will focus on rollout of the internal rebrand.
Adderley Green can also handle minor body and some internal work, but the expectation is that vehicles will arrive free from any major damage. Glasurit 68-Line two-pack paint from supplier Cunbar is used, with First Potteries Engineering Manager Mick Johnson (pictured top, left) describing that product as high quality.
The booth sits separate to the Adderley Green maintenance area and is within its own shed. During the visit of routeone, various vehicles transferring into the First South Yorkshire fleet were being treated. A Volvo B7RLE with Wrightbus bodywork had been completed while a pair of Wrightbus StreetLites were at different stages in the repaint process.
When buses first enter, they are subject to stripping of vinyls and stickers, sanding, and masking. When moved into the spray booth, they are primed twice and then progressively given the topcoat, built around multiple ‘bakings’ of the vehicle.
The booth can lift its internal temperature from ambient to 75 degrees centigrade in around five minutes, helped by the waste heat storage capability. That assists with low energy consumption for the overall process; each bus is estimated to cost around £6 in electricity to treat.
“At Adderley Green we used to have an old paint booth where vehicles were treated by hand, but that was removed some time ago. More recently the business has taken the decision to install the new spray unit,” says Mr Johnson.
Repaints of buses in the Potteries fleet have more recently been carried out by third parties, including a batch of Wrightbus Streetlites that gained an orange-based Mainline-branded scheme following refurbishment. “We would do those internally now,” he continues.
Although Potteries is part of the Manchester, Midlands and South Yorkshire business unit, it is expected that vehicles from other First Bus regions will visit for repaint.
Sprayer Gary Hampton (pictured top, right) is among those staff recruited for the paint booth. He is an established commercial vehicle painter and credits the booth’s pair of ‘wall man’ gantries for assisting the speed of processing.
As suggested by the name, those are mounted on each internal long wall of the booth and can move vertically and horizontally to allow the roof and higher areas, particularly on double-deckers, to be dealt with rapidly.
Roofs have not always been considered in bus repainting, but Mr Johnson says that there is now a sense of pride among the painting staff at Adderley Green in doing a comprehensive job, aided by the ‘wall man’ equipment.
“Stoke-on-Trent is centrally located so we can well serve the wider group from here,” he continues. “The booth is a top-line piece of equipment, and we are pleased to have it.”
