Had a sneaky couple of hours tonight to do a few odd jobs round The Duke. The good news is that I think I’m ready to put the tub back on! Woo!

Not all good news though. I’ve found some more welding to do and some more money to spend - fixing the rusty doors.

Waxy!

First job was to squirt some Waxoyl into the chassis. What a mucky job that turned out to be! Put the tin in a bucket with two kettles full of hot water, pumped the handle and poked my probe into every hole I could find. It’s very drippy and sprays everywhere including clothes, hair and face. Finished off covered in a fine layer of soft waxy gunk, but at least I can hope that the inside of the chassis is now similarly coated!

Gunk all over the shop! Next plan was to put the driver’s door back on - having removed it to do the welding this weekend. Since the mirrors bolt on behind the hinges now seemed like the perfect time to fit them. A little miffed that they’re quite small and I have to say that they’re pretty poor quality, but they’ll do! Also bunged on the windscreen wipers, which took 30 seconds.

Mirror mirror on The Duke Didn’t put the door back in the end because I noticed that it needs some major TLC. The bottom channel on the door frame has completely rusted away, so I need to replace it.

Cheesy door

Luckily, or perhaps because I knew at least one door was knackered, I bought a strip of door repair section from LRSeries a few weeks ago. 20 minutes with a hack saw and I had it cut to size and on the door. Some minor welding and it should be nicely fitted and looking much smarter.

Think I’m going to do the passenger and rear doors too, just to be on the safe side. Don’t think door rust is popular with MOT men.

None cheesy door

So, a little progress today, but a few more jobs discovered too. The chassis is more or less done and dusted, which is great. Next job is to concentrate on the body. Might see if Ron’s feeling strong enough to do some tub lifting tomorrow night…