Feeling very optimistic tonight so I thought I’d share the joy on the blog!

Took the first set of wheels and tyres to ATS today to get them transferred over. Was slightly depressed when they told me I needed tubes too. Bumped the price up to about £30 per wheel; £150 in total. The other two wheels go in tomorrow, so I have to spend another three hours of my life in the nightmare traffic of Berkshire’s county town.

Worth the hassle and expense though - I picked the wheels up tonight and feel much better about it. They look very smart and the Avon Rangemasters are nobly enough not to make The Duke look like a wussy road car! Amusingly they’ve attempted to balance them too, assuming I suppose, that they’ll be fitted to a car that can hit speeds over 20MPH. Each wheel has between six and eight of the biggest balancing weights I’ve ever seen and I’d be willing to bet they’re still wobbly!

This evening I spent a couple of hours on the floodlit drive swapping the wheels over and fiddling with other pre-MOT jobs. Got the bumperettes bolted onto the new crossmember with some bolts from eBay: M8 x 80mm A2 stainless bolts in fact, coming in at 75p each! The middle step is the only problem - I’ve lost the adapter that can be seen under the lifting ring in the following photo, so need to dig it out or replace it with a home-made one.

The missing adapter bracket. Note to self - should also dig out and attach the rings!

Finally managed to free up the headlight adjuster screws too. Seems Dr J was correct about the use of appropriate penetrating oils. Found replacement screws to order and it seems I won’t need new bowls as long as I can get the snapped screw out. That’s great news as it’s changed the lights from an £80+ job to a £15 job!

Finally, I was looking through some old photos at the weekend and noticed that it’s coming up to a year since I picked The Duke up from Witham. On 29th November I’ll have owned him for a full year, so it seems only right that I make that the target date for his MOT.

Taking my Land Rover out on the road a year to the day since I got it would be a fantastic feeling, especially after twelve months of hard graft. Fingers crossed!

November 29th 2008