The weekend started well. A nice lie in, followed by a whole, uninterupted day in the garage! And the weather was nice, too!

Started by ignoring the brakes (and the little puddle underneath them) and cracking on with torquing up all the suspension. I set the top joint and steering arm to the same each side (same each side worked last time), and to the same measurements as when I removed them. Hopefully I should get the nice neutral handling I had before. With everything torqued up, she was ready to roll! A visual check of the wheels shows a little toe in and the same camber as the rears (if anyone doubts my eye, I did it by eye when I built it and got it spot on!). I will take some spanners to Dunsfold to make any changes if it doesn't feel quite right.

I then rolled the car out into the sunshine. I fired her up and massaged my new silicone hoses. Quite a lot of air escaped! I had a few stern words with the car when the fan wouldn't kick in... I left it for a while to cool down and checked the lights all worked ok. Had some interesting moments... The right hand indicator on the front wouldn't work, and nor would the RH side repeater... After a wiggle of the wires, the indicator worked fine, but the repeater did not! It had to be the earth, and sure enough, it was! Some filing and some copperslip later, and all was well. The rear LH cluster not working was traced to me not plugging the connectors back together, and the fog light wouldn't work until I turned the lights on... Forgot that one! However, all well, and the engine was cool enough for another crack at getting the air lock and fan sorted.

This time I positioned the car on a slope pointing upwards, and jacked the front as high as I dare go! Seemed to do the trick, as loads of air escaped, and the fan kicked in! Result. Checked the oil levels were ok, which they were, and then wondered what to do next...

I got my sanding pad out, and rubbed down the aluminium where the bonnet sits, and after giving it a good clean, stuck some foam padding down. This should hopefully stop a little bit of rattling and rubbing there. The shutline around the nose cone will hopefully improve as it compresses...

My little drive to turn the car around did identify a potential issue - the gear lever won't return! Apparently this is fairly common, where the bearing becomes pitted and sticks. Another job to do... along with checking the gearbox oil level. And the diff... I also noticed that the oil pressure is still low. Perhaps it is just a low pressure engine. The pressure rises with revs, I think it must be the PRV. Perhaps I will have a go at that at some point.

I fastened the fuel tank bank down, and replaced the boot floor after ziptying everything safely to the chassis out of the way. There is definitely a knack to getting the boot floor in, and I don't have it!

Then it was most definitely time for dinner!