Roger had reunited the car with its original body frame which was in Desmond’s motor house and had then gone on to get a Second Class award in the Lakeland Trial. (This photo was sent to Desmond the day after we had been talking about the history of my new car)

Starting at the front of the car, I took off the radiator to have a leak in the header tank fixed by Brighton Radiators (01273 611102) in Newhaven.

Dr van Hoof (the previous Dutch owner) had modified the cooling system to run a pipe from the rear of the engine via a Mercedes heater pump to the base of the radiator; maybe this was a pet foible of his or perhaps he had plans for some form of competition as I cannot think that the dykes of Holland would cause massive overheating. But it does seem to be rather effective.

Then there’s the external oil pipe which seems to drain the front main bearing into the rear of the sump; I hope someone can tell me why.

I filled the back axle up with Castrol Spheroid grease; uuuugggh, what a revolting job. It reminded me of one of those TV quiz or reality shows where a contestant has to put their hand into a box of who knows what?

So the last job was the brakes; should have been easy, after all there aren’t very many of them. But…the last brake shoe that I take off snapped in half as I took it off and so began the great brake shoe hunt.

Desmond sold me his last brake shoe casting which someone had made and I took it along to his machinist. To cut a long story short, the casting was a casting of a casting without any account being taken of shrinkage…I think it will make a very unusual photo frame for a suitable picture of Sweet Pea.