Inevitably, The Great Collector has bought another car.

This is his second 2-seat Talbot, the deluxe version no less, albeit the 'extras' are not immediately apparent. The removal of his MG VA's exhaust - specifically, the manifold downpipe was our next job.

It's a very nice car; starts on the button, and with the hood down is slightly easier to get aboard.

The picture doesn't quite show the kick out from the manifold joint to enable the pipe to miss the starter motor, and it's been subject to various degrees of 'attention' over the years, in other words, a bit of a bodge.

And part of the reason I was selected for this 'little' job was that word had got out about my new tube-bender. It's a JD Squared Model 3 - beautifully built and a serious bit of kit. I bought the ¾" mandrels as that's the size of tube I'll be using for the Special's framework. Alas, I haven't got the right mandrel set for the MG's downpipe, but I have a 4' piece of flexible exhaust which may do the job until such time as it can be properly addressed - in other words, a bit of a bodge!

I've still not made any progress on the Special as my week has been taken up building the loom trolleys, 3 of one size and an extra-long one for a particular wide-width loom.

All the basics are now done, with only the half-loops on which the rolls rest, to attach. My local forge is rustling those up as I haven't the tools - or the muscle - to bend 10 x 25mm flat bar.

A Special Builder's Breakfast Club run took us to Thorpeness where there's a very good cafe that serves a breakfast to see you set for the rest of the day. An odd thing happened on the way there. I was somewhere out near Wingfield when I noticed the car's reluctance to make progress. The disc brakes were gradually seizing on! I ground to a halt in a field entrance and pondered what to do. Undoing a calliper union, a small amount of fluid shot out under pressure after which I nipped it up and carried on without further drama. I'll have to investigate that - I suspect another duff master cylinder. Anyway, that doesn't explain the state of the oil filters (they're joined together by a tube insert) that I removed from the filter housing when I got home. The filters as they start out are on the right. Here's a theory: I have a suction do-dah that was less than enthusiastic about sucking the hot, thin oil out of the sump. I undid the sump plugs in the end as otherwise I would have been there for the rest of the day. Filling with new oil, the filler cap was on extremely tightly and I wonder if the 'sucker' had created a vacuum, thus collapsing the filters?

Not to be outdone, The Other Wright Brother turned up on his new toy - a Suzuki Bergman.