I thought that it was time to give the Hillman a bit of a warm up and perhaps change the oil...

... then this happened. I would have gone out for a whizz around the block, but the sugar beet lorries quickly turned the yard into an uninviting muddy slush.

I didn't wake her up.

Instead, I turned my attention to completing the Riley's front suspension. The new but rubbish press performed after a fashion and the swivel pins went into the hub carriers without trouble. The bronze bushes in the top and bottom spindle carriers had to be fettled - I didn't have a reamer of the correct size, so a bit of 1200 paper on the end of a slotted brass rod and spun up on a drill did the trick.

With both sides complete, it was all coming together rather well - even the lower shock absorber mounting bolt and the upper link locating bolt holes came into line as the spindle nuts were tightened to the stops. Both torsion bars went in easily.

The pattern-part brake cylinder bodies didn't quite fit in the backplates; some careful filing to both those components solved that problem. It took a while to work out how the brake adjusters should be assembled - the manual's illustration wasn't particularly clear - and there was a further complication with two sets of snail cams and washers being in the supplied set. Naturally, I chose the wrong ones, but more anon.

I was having trouble working out how on earth the brake return springs could be stretched enough to locate the shoes on the cylinders. Again, the manual's illustration wasn't clear. Lying awake in the small hours, I designed a special tool which could do the job, but more than likely over-stretch the springs in the process.

I went back to my pictures of the disassembly which showed one end of each of the springs located, but not the other. Hmm.

Eventually, I found a couple of small holes in the backplate which were blocked with paint and thus invisible. Eureka! The shoes were easily manipulated into position by hand though the job was made much easier by first removing the hub. As the hubs are on plain and not taper bearings, this was worth the trouble.

With the drum in place (for some reason the drum screws supplied were 24tpi instead of 22 - fortunately, the originals though tatty, were serviceable) I noticed that the new shoes were dragging heavily and the adjusters weren't engaging with the pins on the shoes. That's when I discovered what the smaller diameter snail cams and the extra washers were for. Everything came apart again.

Finally, the major front suspension and hub components were in place. The shock absorbers I could add later (happily, I managed to source a pair of new Monroe examples of the exact dimensions). Then, idly rummaging through the box of new bits, I came across a bag with two chamfered washers...

... No.13 - the swivel pin safety rings. Everything had to come apart again.