With the adjustments to the buck files complete, I went over to the CNC router shop to see the first of the buck panels come off the machine.

Looking good!

And the first former off the machine was X.11.1 which doesn't mean anything to me either until I get the drawing out. It looks like it's something to do with the back of the car where the roof slopes down behind the seats.

Part of the front wing was more easily identifiable. You may notice that I've not used any old plywood but have elected to use a good quality birch ply. This was for consistency in thickness - which helps the routing process - and also ensures stability of the panels as the buck will be sitting around for a while whilst I get the rolling chassis prepared.

And talking of rolling and as mentioned previously, I've started to readdress the powering of the bead roller and have settled on a 5.7:1 reduction on the gearbox attached to the motor. The motor minimum rpm is 1350 and the gearbox has a 28:1 reduction, giving 48rpm. The 10 tooth and 57 tooth sprockets will give me roughly what I need as a minimum roller speed, around 6rpm.

The small sprocket will be mounted to the pulley when the boss has been turned down; I need only the hole in the middle of the pulley as that fits the gearbox output shaft. I'll turn the flanges off as they're not required. Chumley's away playing golf for a week so I'll have to wait to bore out the larger sprocket to suit the roller drive shaft. The sharp-eyed will notice also that I raised the shrinker/stretcher another 6" and in so doing, got into a bit of a muddle with the pedal connection tube - the guessing stick was being particularly troublesome that afternoon.

But the new welding table is performing very well and making life much easier when clamping up things. As I've yet again had to rearrange the workshop, it's also done sterling service as somewhere to pile stuff and move to another area in one hit - castors; can't be beat.

I was invited to go and have a look at some metal fabrication equipment in a long disused workshop during the week.

Everything worked when it was switched off and it's of an age and quality that only the lightest fettling will see it working again. Of course, some rewiring will be to advantage and unless you're using it privately, guards will be an obligation.

It's all too big for me and I wouldn't know what to do with most of it, but someone out there will see it and hopefully some of it will find a new home.

In amongst it all was this little Saab, though not for disposal.

Many moons have passed since I restored this Trojan Mini-motor. The owner then decided to move to Spain and it languished in a shed for several years.

It's back again! Looks like it'll need a couple of bucks spent on it.