Progress report....

Interior trim has come back from the upholsterers and looks fantastic, decided to go for black carpets as all the dirt showed on the old cream ones. And a black binnacle, hated being blinded by the sun on journeys, and considering that most of the journeys I will do in this will be when the sun is shining I thought it a prudent decision.

Engine has been stripped of all ancillaries and has been cleaned and painted silver using high temp paint, looks the dogs cahooners at present, along with all the ancillaries which have either been painted, replaced or repaired and are also slowly being put back on. I've also completely rebuilt the carbs and put in new seals, fixings and internal float chamber valve, after cleaning in the sonic carb cleaner tank. This is the second time I've done this in a few years so it was fairly fresh in my memory! I did find an issue with the throttle arm, it wouldn't go all the way down because it was interfering with the body of the carb, so grinded a little off the arm and now goes all the way down. The stop screw is still there to make sure that this is still adjustable, it's just not relying on the inaccurate body of the carb to stop over throttling.

An issue I had with the new alternator I'm trying to replace, the pulley wheel wouldn't come off initially, but a bit of head scratching and a pair of sensitively placed mull grips soon released the little beggar. This I then tried to put on the new alternator I'd purchased, only to find that the shaft was a different size, I'll have to get a collar machined up to try and rectify this error.

All pipework has also been checked and replaced or repainted with high temp heat paint and now looks great, can't wait to assemble all onto the car. My misses wasn't happy about using the Aga to cure all the high temp heat paint on the parts, made the house smell bad, and getting the engine into that small oven was a squeeze 

Got a load of silicone pipes through the post so will start cutting these to the correct lengths soon, along with the angled pieces, although I've seen a slight problem on the horizon, there is a "s" shaped piece coming directly out of the engine and I'm pretty sure with the bends that I have I won't be able to replicate this, so will need to get this made up especially....more additional expense, wallet is feeling the pinch 

Transmission is my next big task, bought a new uprated circlip from our friend overseas and hopefully this will sort out the whining problem I was getting. Finances are quite tight at present, so wanted to trial this fix first before committing to a refurbished transaxle. Anyone have any experience in doing this, if so a few pointers would be very helpful?

Found a paint guy who is recommended, has painted fibreglass, and is reasonably priced so once the engine is back in, and the dash too I'll get it trailored over to him....

Definitely can see the light at the end of the tunnel.