Over the weekend, I managed to get in a few hours tinkering time, which was quite relaxing. I decided to go about fitting the fog and reverse boxes, but, surprise surprise, the fog light has become brittle from too many drenchings with petrol, and breaks in my future brother in law's hands. He's pretty cut up about breaking my car, but I reassure him that he wasn't the one to break it and that it had probably been broken for ages.

So, perhaps I'll get another, or perhaps I'll crack out the super glue and see how long I can make this one last. I finish up the reversing light, and leave the fog until another day.

I've also got the indicator cones to fit, so off with the lights. The wires pull through the stay with a little persuasion, and the rest is plain sailing. I keep the lenses in the lens covers to keep them safe, and decide to call it a day as having the lights off will make a few other things a little easier.

So tonight, after collecting a shiny new boot cover (thanks Mick), I decided I'd spend the rest of the evening tinkering. I've got some of EFA's rose joint conversion joints, and armed with SM25T's balljoint splitter, I set about tackling this relatively minor job.

The nuts came off relatively easy on both sides, which was better than I'd feared - being pretty exposed, I wondered if it would have just rusted to oblivion, but I'd obviously used enough copperslip!

Then it all started going wrong. I couldn't get the ball joint splitter under the balljoint on the nearside front, wherever the wishbones were in their travel, no matter how hard I tried. I tried hammering it too, and still no luck. To top it all, I've accidentally caught the side repeater cable and cut it clean through. Balls. I think I might have a spare somewhere though, not the end of the world. Half an hour of hammering later, and I give up and try the other side.

This goes marginally better, and I manage to get the balljoint splitter in to action. It takes me half an hour to remove the joint, but it's out, and not rusted in to the wishbone! Yay!

The new joint goes in easily, and is tightened initially to 25 Nm. I can't remember the specified torque settings, but I'll get my manual out at some point and check that.

I can't bear to look at the other side, with it's dirty old ball joint still there... I tinker about, removing a few bits to prepare for a few other things, and call it a night.

I'll sleep on it and see what happens next time. Experience has shown that often things work a little better when you're not stressed or angry!