Thank goodness for mobile phone cameras - though I don't always take the picture I would most need further down the road.

This week has seen quite a lot of fabrication. Two ROV sensor frames in aluminium for which I had drawings, and this stone trap, the prototype of which I had photographed. There's still a sequence to the welding schedule which if you get wrong can cause you a few headaches. The only thing I didn't remember to do was to clamp down the lid before I welded a bracket to its underside, resulting in it warping. Fortunately, the lid clamps hold it flat in place.

With The Great Collector's DB18 hauled up onto the ramp, it was time to see if it could be persuaded to run. With the float bowls full, it managed a couple of pops and bangs and at one point it ran on 4 cylinders for nearly half a minute. We discovered the fuel pump was past its best, so a refurbishment kit has been ordered before trials continue.

The tool for measuring the height of the combustion chamber on the MX5 racing cars is coming along. The piece of aluminium I got from Chumley's scrap bin turned out to be an offcut from a cast block. It's not nice to work with. And the stalk is a rubbish piece of steel that doesn't cut nicely either. I've lodged a complaint and hope in future to see a better class of scrap in the bin.

A coat of primer on the Riley's subframe...

... was followed quickly by a coat of paint before offering it up to the chassis. I decided that it would be easier to attach the lower link arms to the splined tubes on the bench instead of banging my head on the wing stays whilst sitting on the floor.

Father's Rolls Royce 'C' spanner was pressed into service and I discovered that I'd had the foresight to mark up the locking rings when they came off. The spring clips all went back into their respective holes without a problem.

On the left of this picture is the rear offside lower link arm, a lug of which sits on top of its forward counterpart. According to the manual, this is correct. The nearside lower arrangement is the other way round which according to the manual is incorrect. The alignment of the splines on the torsion bar sleeve prevents misassembly so I'm not sure what's going on. Suffice to say that with the 'wrong' assembly, everything is symmetrical and there's no rake on the lower spindle. The excellent Riley forum came to my rescue and confirmed that these anomalies do exist and not to worry - excellent news.

The sharp-eyed will notice two things - no top and bottom spindle and kingpin carriers (oops! jumped the gun again) and a robot dog on its hind legs.

Learned Counsel has beaten me to it - his Spitfire chassis is on wheels. I think the engine is probably the next thing in the sequence.