I persevered with the wire edging and 3 times the diameter of the wire seemed to be a more accurate allowance.

I'm not getting quite the right tuck but that's a function of my tooling which I can deal with in time.

So without any particular plan but having a handy lump of aluminium from Chumley's scrap bin, I launched into making a new oil filler for the cam cover - the old one at the other end of the cover now being closed off. I got this far and realised that I'd not thought about the cap. I'd not left enough material on the lip to cut a thread - what's that? thread cutting? In the 10 or so years I've had my Myford, I've only once or twice moved the various levers on the gearbox and even then I didn't know what I was doing.

I watched a couple of videos which armed me with enough information to get the lathe to work in screw-cutting mode. In the process, I discovered that the thread indicator dial was seized in its housing and preventing the correct operation of the auto feed. There was no obvious way of disassembling the unit, so I applied heat to the casting, put a drill in the end and added oil. That worked a treat. Once I understood how the backgear was engaged and disengaged and how feed speeds were attained, I was almost there. Without a lathe tool angle gauge to grind a tool to 50°, I used a pointy one and a bit of broomstick to get the hang of things.

In anticipation of getting my piston ring compressor back from Learned Counsel, I knew that somewhere I had a booklet, produced by Britool, with a list of important torque values for cars popular in the 50's and 60's. It was in the engineering section of my library and although it didn't list the Morris MS, the Wolseley 6/80 being almost identical, would be good enough.

It appears that this particular car has at some point been involved in a bit of a shunt. I can't quite make out why the distortion to this chassis end plate is as it is. I've mentioned before that a couple of the lugs on the chassis seem out of place and sure enough, not all the bolt holes line up correctly.

The nearside is fine but the offside is going to need some surgery.

I'll have to cut off the offending lugs - the bores have been messed with and are actually oval - and replace them with a couple of new ones. I shall at the same time offer up the offside tower to get them tacked in the right place. Parting off with the Myford on anything but the softest material is never successful, so I mark the cut line and use the chop saw.

The drain holes for the tower tray need repositioning on the master drawing....

... and I discover that the tray's doubler needs shortening as it protrudes into the torque sleeve opening.