Bus body evidence: Warning this is like rivet counting

OK so as you may remember Smitty asked if the bus body today is the same as the one the seen in the picture with the sides and roof removed.
Well after doing some research I believe 100% that the bus on #3 today is the original bus for #3.

Call me crazy but here is the evidence that I found to prove it.If you think Im looking into this way to much then ignore my post.

So first off there are some bolts above the left windshield that today are there for no apparent reason. These two studs I believe were used to hold up a sign that read "Charter". I have seen this in one picture on #3. Next to the bolt closer to the center of the bus is a filled in hole. This hole and the neighboring bolt are the same location that the Wabco air horns used to be. They were mounted just like #5 is today. And in case you are wondering if maybe these bolts are normal on a Wayne bus body, well they are not. If you look at pictures of the geese with the brand new buses these bolts are not there.

Also in this same area are the marker lights, just above there current location are what appears to be the old marker mounts. There is still some of the old mount after being cut off with a grinder. There is also a dent in the roof next to the door, this dent appears in pictures from 1952. On the other side of the body below the headlight is a long horizontal scrape. this also appears today and in 1952.

To the pictures.
The black arrows point to the sign bolts, and the hole for the horn mount. The red arrow, and red circle show the marker bracket and dent. I know its hard to see the dent.


To compare here is a shot from 1952. The red circle show the bolts, and the red arrow shows the dent by the door.Also note the marker light mounted higher. The black circle shows the horizontal dent on the right side of the goose.




Last picture has an arrow pointing to what I guess is an earlier fuel filler hole that has been covered up. Well there is no evidence on the outside today, but under the #3 today there is a hole in the floor right under this location.


All this leads me to believe that this is #3s bus body from the RGS. At some point either before or after it came to Knotts it was put back together. This could have been done with the old parts, used parts from another Wayne bus body, or new parts from Wayne. If the old parts were used then I suspect it was only the structure, and the roof metal. The side panels were replaced, at Knotts the sides were straight as an arrow and the lower panels have a bead rolled in them that was not present when on the RGS.

These body were all bolted together, no welds, or rivets.This made repairs easy. Just unbolt the old and bolt on the new. You could even lengthen a body the same way.

Here is a quote from a Wayne ad.
“There are no welds to tear, no rivets to come loose or shear, and no wood screws to fall out. Wayne bodies are through-bolted exclusively”

And another
Because of Wayne’s through bolted construction, their sectional bodies could be easily repaired when damaged in an accident. Additionally existing bodies could be shortened or lengthened as desired by simply unbolting the body panels and either removing or inserting a section in the middle and bolting it back together.

Wow to understand a goose you must understand buses.