A crazy frenzy of work has gone on. It was Ross' stag do last weekend so it's all been weekday evenings. I also took monday and tuesday off this week and spent all day working on the car, with Ross and Amy joining me in the evenings. We got the following done:

• Ross finished the boot patch (outside bodywork on the side of the wing)
• Put on the bumper brackets and bumpers (reused old brackets after treating with por15.
• Ross finished front front of sills with two excellent patches that matched up the bodywork for the side panel to the door pillar and sill
• I put on a new front brake pipe (from ecas), attached the new rear pipe as well and bled the brakes using a single-man brake bleeding kit (which was very very useful).
• From in the pit I put fuel tank back on and attached a new fuel line.
• Put back on the light array with all connections which was easy thanks to the colourful connections and Amy reading through the wiring diagrams in the Haynes manual.
• Amy put in new spark plugs and attached the old HT leads.
• Drilled new seat holes and seatbelt holes in the floor pan because our extensive patching had covered or replaced most of them.
• Put the old expansion box, and new 3-piece exhaust back on using a brand new fitting kit.
• Finally we put the wings, boot, bonnet, roof etc all back on, and ended up with a whole car again!

Here's Amy in the pit attaching the fuel pipe to the chassis. We used zip ties for both the fuel and brake pipes.



After attaching the fuel pipe we tried to pull the fuel through to the pump. I tried sucking it down the pipe and can quite honestly say that it was one of the most horrible experiences I've had. We ended up using the hoover.

After that we tried to start her up but it had been raining and everything was damp. There was no joy, not even a bang. We tested the LT and HT circuits and everything seemed OK. I pointed out that it had taken me a long time to start her in these conditions without the engine not being run for a year and half!

On Tuesday morning it was all sunny and warm and up there on my own I turned the key. Started first time! I almost didn't catch it with the accelerator I was so surprised. How many other engines would have done that after so long being unused?! This is me driving around :)



Here we are having some dinner very kindly brought up by Janet on Tuesday evening...



Powered by the curry here's Ross welding on the front panel to the second sill while I was busying around putting the easy bits back on.



So late on Wednesday night... well Thurs morning at about 3am to be precise Ross and I left with her all back together and ready for the MOT booked in first thing!