Big Blue

Big Blue is a 1980 LWB 2.6l petrol SIII Land Rover. We bought it as an MoT failure and are going to re-build with a 3.5 V8 and some other refinements. This is the diary of the re-build.

Date	Event	Spent
15/08/99	Paul: I spotted this 109 on the Autotrader Web site. It was only ten miles away at Over so we popped "over" to see it. The vehicle itself is in generally good order, the body work is very straight and painted blue. It's a very similar shade to my old SWB which was called Baby Blue, so this one was immediately nicknamed Big Blue. Looking it over the bulkhead has little or no rot, there is a little rot under the loadbay floor, but nothing much. The engine runs and sounds fine (it's done about 75K miles) and the gearbox seems OK (he had a re-con put in about two years ago). The tyres are legal but only just. It has roo bars with twin Oscars fitted. Inside the front seats are a bit tatty and there are bench seats in the back. Lots of sound proofing and a carpeted roof! The real downside is the chassis, which is in a bad way. It has had a replacement quarter chassis and dumb irons already. Now the outriggers have gone, badly. There's also some small holes in the rails. It generally smelled of a chassis which was on its way out. Which suits us fine. I said we'd think about it.
16/08/99	Paul: I pencilled together a budget today for the project. No doubt we'll laugh at it later: Big Blue 550 (with a bit of haggling) new galvanized chassis 950 new diff ratios 250 new tyres 300 contingency 500 --- 2550 less 2.6 engine series gearbox old diff ratios 300? So we could get it back on the road with a new chassis for perhaps 2000-2500 net, with V8 power.
17/08/99	Paul: I phoned him today and offered him £600 for it, and he bit my hand off. What have we done?	£600.00
18/08/99	Paul: Much phoning around and trawling of Web sites. Looks like we can keep the original plate if we re-chassis as a leaf spring but if we convert it to a coiler it'll have to be Q plated. Decisions, decisions. It'll take "4-5 weeks" for Designa Chassis to build us a chassis to our spec so we need to decide what sort we want and get our order in ASAP. We've more or less decided to go with the coil spring option. It'll cost more but we get a more comfortable and more capable vehicle and we don't have to mess about trying to change the diff ratios as 110s have the right ratios already.
19/08/99	Paul: Got a written quote from Designa Chassis. They'll do us a coil sprung chassis, modified to take a V8 and Range Rover gearbox for £1,102.97 or a "built up" chassis, axles, suspension, brakes etc using mainly refurbished 110 components for £2,350.00. So the built up option adds another £1,250 to the bill but we'll get some of it back by selling the old axles. We also save money from the original budget which change the diff ratios. Allowing for that, and the sale of the axles it'll probably add £900 to the final cost. Alternatively we source the components ourselves, which would be cheaper but it's a lot of arsing around and we want this up and running by next summer. Went to see Dave Pople in the evening and gave him the £600 in cash, and went home with the keys and the rotor arm.
20/08/99	Marshalls recovered Big Blue to our house.	£58.75
23/08/99	Ordered a built up coiler chassis from Designa Chassis. Total price £2,350 inc VAT plus delivery! Deposit of £500 now.	£500.00
02/09/99	Paul: Well, we each have our priorities. And while we wait for the chassis Beth's been sorting out bits from her great pile of old Land Rover parts ... and I've bought a digital camera! So here's some pictures. This is the front driver's side outrigger - good rust huh? More rust, around the radiator grill classic, I think we'll need to fabricate a new grill surround Meanwhile a spider has taken up residence
03/09/99	Beth: Ordered engine parts from Real Steel (shame they don't have a web site): big end bearings, main bearings, gasket sets, pushrods, rocker shafts, standard camshaft, time chain set, hydraulic lifters, cam bearing set, and remote oil filter kit.	£331.30
04/09/99	Beth: The spare engine clean-up has begun. I spent the day removing the old camshaft bearings from the block and cleaning it. Also dismantled the rocker shafts and started cleaning the rockers and pedestals. The shafts are shot as expected. But a couple of the rockers are worn due to blocked oil ways. Vivid lesson on why you should not use cheap and nasty oil in a v8. Apparently. Me, I always run the lightweight on decent oil. So hopefully won't get the dreaded Black Sludge.
04/09/99	Paul: While Beth was working on the engine I drove over to Nene Valley Off Road to get some tyres as the ones that came with Big Blue ranged from illegal (bald patches) to dubious (Chinese manufacture, no approval marks, one almost new but didn't want to drive on them). We'd looked through LRO beforehand a plumped for some General SAG radials. They're not as agressive as the cross plys (which look like they'd compete with SATs) but have decent size blocks in an open pattern. One wheel was rusty inside to I brought back one tyre and tube unfitted.	£321.28
05/09/99	Beth: Continued cleaning the rockers, but didn't finish as the dust produced by wire brushing them didn't seem too good. Will await new dust masks. Instead I attacked a head. Did a first pass degrease, then dismantled. All the valves, seats and guides seem okay. I think I'll give it another degrease, maybe followed by a blast with the pressure washer, and clean up the valves.
05/09/99	Paul: One thing that's worried us from the start of this is that the V8 is from a Rover SD1, the earlier carburated model and it was unclear whether or not it would run on unleaded without valve seat recession. "Practical Classics" magazine claimed that the SD1 V8 runs unleaded without problems but "Land Rover Owner" said not, as did other sources. The Haynes manual claimed that the Rover P6 and early Range Rovers, both of which we knew to not run with unleaded, have valve seats made from "piston ring iron" but the SD1 valve seats were "Brico alloy 318", which sounded more promising. So today I did some ringing round. Marshalls said: old cars, got to be unsuitable for unleaded. But he patently didn't know. So I phoned Rover customer services who didn't know either but put me on to the Rover Heritage Centre at Gaydon (01926 641188). There I had a chat with a very helpful man who said that, as we suspected, P6's are only suitable for leaded. SD1s are more interesting however. The later fuel injected engine was definitely able to run with unleaded because unleaded was the coming thing. He was told, by Rover, that the earlier twin SU engine (the one we have) will only run on leaded. However he didn't take them at their word because he knew that Rover sold the SD1 in the US, where they had to run on unleaded because they had it before us. So he looked up the part numbers and discovered both the original SD1 engine and the later injection version had identical valve seats. Same part number. His conclusion: because the SD1 was designed from day one to sell in the US they fitted unleaded compatible seats. The reason that many people claim the early SD1 only runs on leaded is that in the UK there was no unleaded available, so the spec only mentioned leaded, whereas later, with the injection there was unleaded so the spec mentions both. All makes sense and ties up with our conclusions. Looks like no valve seats to replace.
11/09/99	Paul: we spent Saturday afternoon in the garden attacking the heads in what looks like being the last of the summer sunshine. I discovered that stainless steel wire wool from the kitchen was the weapon of choice. It got most of the cack off the valves, although a little work with a screwdriver blade was needed for the big bits. And the wire wool also made a good job of the head casting. I used a kitchen scourer (somewhat softer) on the machined surfaces though as the wire wool does scratch. Rust in the bonnet - another little job to do at some point Meanwhile Beth was working on the other head, removing casting flash and opening out the holes where the pushrods go through.
16/09/99	Beth: Went to Wicken 4x4 to buy various new bits for the Lwt and secondhand bits for BB. Obtained: Clutch arm, handbrake assembly, crankshaft pulley, a starter motor in bits, high-low lever and difflock valve.	£63.00
19/09/99	Paul: while Beth was out trialing I spent Sunday sorting out the workshop. Main task was to build a second workbench as the first is covered in valves, head etc. Then spent a happy hour attacking the head I'd worked on the previous weekend.
25/09/99	Paul: we really want to soak the heads in petrol to help get the cack off so we went to B%Q today and found a big plastic box with a lid. Took it home a put 5 gallons of petrol in it. The heads are now soaking in it.	£15.00
28/09/99	Paul: so we now own 5 gallons of contaminated petrol. We're going to have to dispose of it later. So I thought I'd find out how to do it. First call was to South Cambridgeshire District Council, who're responsible for waste disposal. They weren't interested and told me I needed to contact a specialist company but wouldn't tell you who. She finally suggested I contact Esso or Shell. I put the phone down on her. So I tried Cambridge City Council, the district next door, who said they had no idea and I should try the Environment Agency, whose number they gave me. The nice lady at the Environment Agency suggested putting it in the waste oil recycling tank at the local landfill site. "I don't think so," I said "if I put it in there it'll go BANG!" So she passes me on to the expert, a nice man, who obviously likes a challenge. Which is lucky because it turns out that petrol contaminated with engine oil etc is a "special waste" because it's carcinogenic. So normally I'd have to have the right paperwork (whatever that is) before I could dispose of it. However as a householder I'm excluded from the rules and don't have to have the paperwork. Problem is that it needs disposing of at a "special chemicals handling facility" and they can't dispose of it for me unless ... yes, you've guessed it ... they have the paperwork which they have to get off me! In the end he managed to arrange for a local facility to take it without paperwork. Why is life so complicated?
15/10/99	Paul: The chassis came today. Luckily Beth had the day off to work her Lightweight because, having told Designachassis I'd be around to receive it all day I had a panic at work and had customers come to see me. Anyway Beth sorted it out, got the our wheels on (it was delivered by a man with an Escort Van and a spectacle style tow thaang with gash wheels fitted) and got it parked in the street while she finished sorting out the lightweight. We had many amused glances by people passing on their way to or from lunch.	£1920.50
16/10/99	Paul: Beth was off at Wildtracks today setting out for trial tomorrow. I got both heads out of the petrol bath and put some other oily components in. I then cleaned up the other head and then turned my attention to Big Blue as it's time to start the strip down. The roo bar, bumper and spots came off easily. The bolts were badly corroded, being at least 30% rotted away at one end - wouldn't like to recover off those! Roo bar and bumper off The end of the chassis rail is completely rotten! Then I started under the bonnet, taking out the battery and oil bath air filter and then I had a good look at the part of wiring loom that drives the lights. This is something I'm very familiar with as I had to totally rewire Baby Blue after a fire. It all looked fine so I went around unplugging it and drawing it back through the grommits until it was clear of both wings. A couple of the bullet connectors wouldn't come out and I had to cut them off, but it's 90% intact and will be easy to refit. The bit I did bodge was the P clips on the RHS wing. These are a bugger to undo on your own, being bolted through the inner wing, so I cut them off. Lighting loom out - spaghetti city!
19/10/99	Paul: Last Saturday, in a break between working on Big Blue, I had lunch at the Wrestlers and Brian happened to mention that he had the whole of the interior of a Renault 21 Savanna in his loft (long story) including the seat belts. My ears pricked up as Big Blue's seat belts aren't inertia reel and, to cut a long story short, he popped around tonight to give us a pair of inertia reel seat belts. They're have silver/blue webbing and the clips have webbing rather than wire connecting them to the base, being rear seat belts. I think they'll do nicely. What a nice man.
28/10/99	Beth: Started building the engine. At least, I've installed the cam bearings. And had a go at cleaning the main bearing blocks and bolts.
30/10/99	Paul: Today we had a day working on the chassis. The main task was to work our way around as many nuts and bolts as possible, undoing them, copper slipping them and re-fitting them. In particular I wanted to do the shock absorbers as I know from bitter experience that they're a pig to undo n years down the line if you don't do this. Beth also drilled some drain holes in the bottom of a couple of the out riggers which were collecting water and I oiled the axle breathers. Designa Chassis had fitted new breathers ... but not oiled them. Doh! We also bought some brake pipe ready to start laying in the brake lines (Designa Chassis only fit pipes on the axles, along with the flexible pipes up to the chassis - and they got this wrong, fitting one rear brake pipe so it is positioned under the bump stop: not a good plan!).	£?.??
20/11/99	Paul: Since I last wrote we've discovered that the four speed box Beth had spare was in a bad way with significant amounts of swarf in the filter. This answered one of the big unresolved issues: would we be happy with a four speed or should we go five speed. We've now got no choice: we need another box. So I asked on uk.rec.cars.4x4 if anyone had a five speed box available. I got three replies, from TJC Land Rovers near Kings Lynn, Famous Four of Louth and another 4x4 place in Lancs whose name I've forgotten. We went to TJC and then Famous Four today and bought a box from Famous Four. It's an LT77 out of a 110 diesel with 70K miles on it. It's an E suffix. It's mated to an R230 transfer box. We also got a hand brake lever and a V8 flywheel (from a Range Rover). Gearbox at Famour Four the ambulance in the background is soon to be broken up as no one wants to buy it. Tragic.	£499.38
10/12/99	Paul: Since we got the gearbox we've been trying to work out the best way to mate it to the V8. It seems that there are two options: get a V8 bell housing and a new input shaft for the gearbox, or a conversion plate. According to Ashcroft Transmissions the former option is only available on later suffix boxes so that was out. So we phone Steve Parker, who're specialists in this type of thing. They quoted £270 plus VAT for a kit consisting of a conversion ring, a spigot shaft bush, engine mounts and a remote oil filter housing - and wouldn't sell us the just the first two. So we went to Milner Conversions instead, who actually make the kit and bought just the ring and spigot shaft bush. Other information for people going down the same road: because we're using a Range Rover flywheel we have to drill and tap new holes for the smaller clutch, if we'd used an SD1 flywheel we'd not need to, but you need another component to sort out the clutch. Steve Parker recommends using a Borg and Beck clutch, as it has to work hard being smaller than the recommended size. in order to mate the V8 to the input shaft the spigot bush has to move. This means you have to saw the end off the crankshaft if you're using an SD1 engine - which we are.	£211.50
01/01/00	Paul: now Christmas and New Year are over (Beth: not to mention my flu) Beth spent some time today cleaning up the pistons.
02/01/00	Beth: Finished cleaning the pistons. And started on the crankshaft.
03/01/00	Beth: Finished cleaning the crank, and dismantled the front timing cover. Which was absolutely thick with the original Black Gunge. Yum. Inspected the oil pump. The cover plate was lightly marked and not scored at all. So a good clean and reassemble is all that is required there.
31/01/00	Beth: Over the past few weeks I have tried to do a couple of hours work during the week and then some time at the weekend on the engine. Status is now: Crankshaft spigot bearing housing shortened with a hacksaw ready to take the adapter. Cam and crank are installed. Main bearing bolts threadlocked and torqued down. All the pistons installed, but the big end nuts haven't been tightened down yet. I have acquired a sump pan, but haven't found the oil pick up. Should have got the whole lot, but Wicken were so disorganised and expensive that I just wanted to leave. I'm inclined to go somewhere else if I can't find it.
29/02/00	Beth: Since I last wrote, I've made quite a bit of progress. Engine: Oil pickup sourced and sump on. Oil pump bottom cover plate for remote filter 'gasflowed' as it was poorly finished but not yet fitted. Oil pump, timing gears and chain, and timing cover on. Crankshaft pulley sat there but not tightened up to full torque setting yet. Flywheel, and clutch assembled with a little bit of easing of two of the spigot holes. The flywheel spigots looked out slightly and so was the clutch cover holes. Marvellous eh? One wonders why you send things off to people who supposedly know what they are doing. And the engine to gearbox conversion plate needed grinding to fit past the clutch slave cylinder. The water pump is on ... But I'm not sure whether that is the one we are going to actually run with. It's an SD1 type with the long nose. We could save about 2 or so inches of space at the front by going for a P6 pump and changing the crank pulley's to suit. But that would mean sourceing P6 alternator bracket and water pump pulley, at least. Not sure which rocker covers I'm going to use, I have a set of P6 ones sat on. But the SD1 ones do have better breathers. And they are currently on the Lwt. Inlet manifold is cleaned up, and I'm contemplating the carb situation. Gearbox: is now cleaned up enough. New slave cylinder installed, bought from Marshall's at great expense and suffered a real miserable sod. Why oh why do they not grok the concept of a 'service' industry. I'd have bought a lot more from them if they had the bits in stock. On checking the diff lock mechanism worked I discovered it didn't. The reason, the plate under the rubber boot fouled the diff lock lever. a half-hour with a file sorted that, and it now goes into difflock properly. But I'm left thinking, had it *ever* been put into diff lock? No, must be the short answer!
04/03/00	Beth: Well, I got some carbs sorted out and attached to the inlet manifold. Fitted it. Did some messy about little jobs. One of which was to fit the sparkplugs. Oh dear. Predictably one of the threads was a little iffy and the plug wouldn't go in properly. I'm damned sure I checked them all when we were cleaning the heads. But anyway, I've just spent this evening taking the head off and helicoiling the offending port. That was fun. Since the last time I did it didn't go straight, I thought I would go in from the combustion chamber side where the threads were okay. Bad mistake. Because the port is angled, the step on the cutting tool pushes it out of line when it gets to the (angled) chamber. Which essentially ripped the good threads out. So I had to go in from the outside, and predictably it didn't go quite straight. So in the morning (its now 10:22pm), I'll take the head outside and ease the hole so I can get a plug socket in... And then clean the head again, and re-assemble. And yes I have checked the other plugs again! Other items of note. Marshalls wanted 13 quid each for engine/gearbox mounts. I need 4 for the next week, and Paddocks couldn't guarentee we would have them till later. So I got the Marshall's ones. Later found out that Paddocks charge 3 quid each. Ouch. Never will I go to Marshalls again. Even if it means everything stops till we can get mail order parts. The good bit is that I found a local(ish) bolt place. Glenwood Bolts and Screws in Linton. The chap did a grand job of listening to my vague descriptions and coming up with the goods for very reasonable sums of money.	£68.00 £12.00 £13.00
12/03/00	Paul: we've both had the last week off and things have moved on somewhat. Beth measuring up after she'd offered up the engine and gearbox for the first time Beth's got the engine and gearbox together and in situ in the chassis. She spent much of the week measuring, re-measuring, measuring again, and then making up custom engine and gearbox mounts. I spent the week stripping everything off so I could get to the bulkhead. The bonnet had come off some weeks ago and I've de-rusted the spars and zinced and Hammerited them. This week I took off the wings (easy enough), the doors (not so easy, two bolts on the passenger side refused to budge so I had to drill them out) the steering wheel, cut the brake pipes and the clutch pipe, unhooked a thousand and one other bits of wire and pipe and finally, after a great deal of sweating and bruised knuckles got the bulkhead out. The worst job was four bolts which hold the door sills to the bulkhead. These captive bolts and the nuts are very difficult to get a spanner on. I ended up sawing two off with sabre saw and getting the other two out the hard way with a cold chisel. These bolts took me a whole morning to remove. The bulkhead removed at last, still attached to the crane The final lift I did by tying a rope around the bottom corners so that the apex was at the bottom of the window frame and lifting with the engine crane. This is much better than lifting it by hand as you can stop at intervals as you realise you've missed things to disconnect! Having got it out we discovered some rot where water had got in under the window frame so I've cleaned out the worst of the rust and applied Hammerite rust "converter" followed by yet more zinc loaded paint (it's not really worth filling the holes, we're just going to dump lots of waxoyl in when we reassemble. The full horror of the state of the bulkhead outrigger revealed after using the cold chisel on the bolts I also stripped off the steering components we intend to re-use, including the relay which came out really easily - after it have spent two weeks soaked in WD40. There's a moral there as this is allegedly a pig of a job normally. We also found a radiator this week. After a bit of a false start Anglia Radiators (01223 314444) came good and based on the dimensions we gave them found us a Peugeot 205 TD radiator which fits the space we've got available perfectly and an oil coiler to slot in below it next to the steering relay.	£179.78
12/03/00	Paul: The bad news this week was Paddocks. I really should have learned by now. Last week we ordered various bits from Paddocks: footwells, engine drain taps and a Stage 1 V8 exhaust, paying extra for "next day delivery", which meant two days in their weird way of thinking. They didn't have all the bits of the exhaust, which comes in five parts, but they had four and they said the other bit would go on back order. The parts were due to arrive on Monday. They knew, because I'd stressed it, how important it was that we got the bits as we've both got the week off work. By Wednesday, nothing had arrived. I phoned them up. The order hadn't been sent out at all because "we're waiting parts to complete the order". But I'd agreed with them previously that they would part ship what they had to arrive on Monday. Arghhhh!!!! "We're sending it today" she said "so you should have the parts on Friday". At this point I got a tad ratty and pointed out, again, that we'd been promised them for Monday. "I suppose we could send them "next day" she said, so you'll get them tomorrow". Thursday morning the footwells arrived. But that was all. The paperwork said we should have more. So I phoned again and they promised the rest for Friday. Friday came and the parts arrived. However there were now only two parts for the exhaust - the other two had now gone on back order too. Moreover the Y piece which did arrive was appallingly constructed. I've now cancelled the order for the exhaust and we're returning the bits we've got already.	£34.55
26/03/00	Paul: bit of a slack period this. Some progress, for example I got the front seats out and made a start of the seat box, and I also inspected (and rejected!) the rear loom. Replacement on order from Autosparks. But the weather has been fairly crap and we weren't in the mood so not much done. What we did do was offer up the bulkhead to the new chassis for the first time and were pleasantly surprised by how little will need chopping out to fit around the V8. We're going to have to lose about an inch on the passenger footwell side and half an inch on the driver's side.
08/04/00	Paul: bit of a "tag team" effort this weekend as we were also acting as pit crew at Snetterton for our friend with a Formula 4. So on Saturday I got the bulkhead up on its side and chopped out the rotten passenger side foot well and "re-modelled" the bits we're keeping (the inner face mainly) to fit the engine. Then on Sunday while I was at Snetterton Beth took over and welded in the footwell and also re-built the rotten chassis mounting point. Bulkhead on its side and guyed with footwell chopped out
15/04/00	Paul: Saturday was a complete wash out - it rained all day. We sat in front of the fire and read. Sunday we were at Brands Hatch being pit crew again.
24/04/00	Paul: Easter weekend. This has been a frustrating weekend. Not least because the weather was bit dodgy at the start but mainly because I managed to trash our router and spent most of the weekend recovering the situation (we're still only getting out on a 33.6Kb modem, but of a come down from the ISDN-2). Anyway some progress made: Beth laid in the brake lines in and painted the engine mounts and on Monday I chopped some metal out of the driver's side footwell which Beth then welded and I painted with zinc primer.
01/05/00	Paul: May Day Bank holiday weekend. A much better weekend. After the debacle the previous weekend I took the Thursday off and spent a happy morning giving the outside of the footwells two coats of silver Hammerite. Took three hours and I was dizzy from the fumes by the end but it looked good. On Saturday afternoon Hugo came around and we offered up the bulkhead again. If anything I chopped out more than I needed to on the passenger side and a little less than I should on the driver's side but it fits and we've left it in place (although we will need new bolts when we can find some). The rest of the day we started work in earnest on the radiator mounting and getting the bulkhead tied down. Sunday was a wash out with rain again so I got on with the kitchen (finally fitted the downlighters). Monday was more of the same really. I've now stripped out all the metalwork behind the front panel (much work with sabre saw and angle grinders) so we can mount the radiators close to it and Beth got the steering box bracket bolted to the chassis (but only by drilling new holes as the ones in the chassis weren't in the right place). The last thing I did was paint the inside of the footwells with zinc primer and take the picture above. A good weekend on the whole.
01/05/00	Beth: As Paul mentioned, I sorted out the steering box bracket, which I had to re-drill because the bolt holes in the chassis were in the wrong place. I also fitted the relay box, and steering box to relay link complete with new trackrod ends. The old front propshaft was the right length so I took that off and fitted it to the new transmission. But I'm not convinced it'll stay there as the knuckle looks like it will foul the drive flange at the gearbox end when the axle is at full drop. I suspect I'll have to get a rangey one which has more movement.
13/05/00	Paul: we got the radiator mounting sorted out this weekend.
15/05/00	Paul: Today we ordered the power steering. We're going for a ram arrangement we saw at Billing last year made by National Power Steering.	£598.06
29/05/00	Paul: Yet another bank holiday weekend, further extended by Beth taking Friday off. The weather wasn't great: it rained on Friday, Saturday afternoon, and much of Sunday but we made a great deal of progress. Work done included: power steering ram installed steering "tuned" (with a crowbar) power steering pump cannibilised from Beth's Lwt (which has succumbed to the dreaded rust worm) RH wing offered up and "modified" seat box and door sills removed from donor vehicle majority of bolts holding on the tub removed first pass made at water plumbing We also bought another landie on Saturday, but that's another story of which more later, and I finished off the lighting in the kitchen on Sunday morning while we were waiting for the rain to stop. A good weekend.
03/06/00	Paul: bought a 110 V8 exhaust system from our village tyre and exhaust place, C&R Tyres.	£158.62
17/06/00	Paul: a good weekend, Beth made good progress fitting the exhaust and I finally go the rear body free from the chassis and it's now ready to lift.
20/06/00	Paul: Tonight Hugo and Andrew came round and we took the rear body off the chassis. Surprisingly painless. It's now resting on two axle stands and a workmate (see photo 26/06/00 below). Taking it off revealed more horror stories on the old chassis. The rear spring outriggers in particular were dreadful. Below you can see the offside hanger. Hugo kicked it and it cracked at the chassis rail and the outside end crumbled to dust! How the hell this got an MoT less than two years ago I'll never know but I'm certainly glad we paid to have it recovered here!
21/06/00	Paul: tonight I checked out the ribs which hold the floor up. Not as bad as I feared. One is completely rotten, but we have a spare from the Lwt which will replace it. The rest are rusty, but seem sound, so I'm going to clean the loose stuff off, put the magic liquid on the rest of it, and then Hammerite them.
26/06/00	Paul: it really feels like we're making progress at the moment, although I think it's more because it's so visual than anything else. Yesterday (while I was away having fun at King's) Beth got the engine and gearbox out of the old chassis and started chopping it up. Today I had equal amounts of BFO angle grinder/sabre saw fun cutting up the rest of it. The photo on the left shows the scene about halfway through with the springs still waiting to come off the axles (makes an impressive "pop" when you saw through a U bolt under tension!). When I'd finished chopping the chassis into 90 rear load space sized chunks I took it to the dump into two loads and the engine (in the foreground in the pic), gearbox and the two axles are safely stored under a tarp at the back of the drive. Also on Sunday we spent some time with the wings, so currently Big Blue has both wings and bonnet on, and very nice it looks too. The story continues here ...
	Total spent to date	£5584.20