Woohoo! A milestone day. Checked in with Dad, he said to check there was a spark by doing the spark plug on the block thing. So, waited until John Davies (friend) called around and gave it a try. Before attempting start I disconnected the fan which was running all the time annoyingly. The battery was well charged, and it actually fired up with only 3 spark plugs connected. Quickly shut it off, and reconnected the plug lead. She fired up straight away, but was coughing and spluttering away, backfiring through the SU’s which had no air cleaner fitted. Shut her off, left it a minute and fired her up and ran at a fast idle for a few minutes. She was a bit fluffy and it took a couple of goes, but then cleared her throat and after that I gradually eased the choke off and she then idled for 10 minutes smoothly. Clean to rev, but probably idling too fast (around 1500) so out of tune somewhere. Sounded great. Did a full check of the lights and they all work, so that’s another plus point. However, with the clutch pedal not willing to come up, I did not risk putting her into gear. Following shut down, we took a look and the radiator had seeped a bit and she was close to boiling over with steam coming from around the radiator cap. Hmmm – so that is why the fan was set to stay on maybe? That needs sorting properly so that goes on the job list.

More opinions on the original colour – John reckoned it was green all along and the white is just an undercoat from the 70s. Could be right. If so, maybe we just steam clean under the bonnet with electrical components removed and not take the engine out…

Had a good look at the doors – yes, to taking them off and getting them repaired. Looks quite straightforward, if heavy job.

Another conversation with Helen and Amanda (friend) who both considered that the seats would be better in leather. So that’s an upgrade worth thinking about, rather than nasty 70s cloth and vinyl.