Spent a day doing some odd jobs with the assistance of Jason. I spent most of my time poking about with my multimeter and he did some more satisfying hammer-oriented tasks. Sadly, I think I found at least four additional problems for the list…

  • The prop shaft is bent. I'd be willing to bet some large amount of money that I have Witham's forklifting to thank for this. Maybe not the time we were watching, but the shaft is badly flattened and bent level with the chassis. Annoying.
  • The locks on the front doors are broken. Jason took them off for me and a quick comparison to the back door lock shows that they aren't closing properly.
  • The driver's door is badly bent. Taking it off to get the wing mirror off revealed that the bolts attaching the door to the hinge were bent.
  • The "acorn nut" in the centre of the rocker cover is missing and the one at the back was loose. This worries me a bit. Had a quick peek under the rocker cover and all looks OK, but I couldn't get it all the way off. I really hope the engine itself is alright!
The prop shaft is very depressing and the rocker cover worrying, but there were good points today too.
  • The wiring for the front lights, at least as far back as the engine seems OK. Just need to trace the back lights and follow the wires into the dash.
  • Speaking of the dash, the new one fits fine. Got a spare bit to give to Johnson too.
  • Checked the radiator and water reservoir and they were both full and there were no signs of leaks.
  • Confirmed that the starter motor and starter solenoid are present, which is nice!
  • Jason unbolted the generator panel and it really is as good as new! No signs of heat anywhere and it even smelled new.
The air filter seems good too. I had to take it off to get my hands on the wiring going into the right hand wing. The wire mesh inside has a fair sprinkling of grass seeds and the oil level has a little too low, but otherwise fine and dandy.

I also found a mystery component, which is always very exciting. It’s wired to the heater and was wrapped in some slightly charred cardboard so I think it’s a resistor to allow a 12v heater on a 24v system. It was just banging about in the engine compartment though. Pretty shoddy!

Jason spent some time sawing off the knackered door top bolts and taking the glass out of the old door tops. The door top frames were totally screwed, but the glass may come in handy if I decide to get unglazed door tops to save cash or, more likely, I end up with a smashed window some time in the future!

By far the most positive thing of the day is that I managed to find some reasonably cheap military lens covers for the lights. Usually these cost £10-£15 each new and usually well over £5 second hand, so I was very pleased when I managed to find a set on EBay for £36 including shipping. I got four indicators, two stop/tail lights and two reverse. I’ll need two more clear lenses for the side lights, but then I’m more or less done. I’d expected to be spending £70+ on these, so I’m quite happy to get them half price!