Every few years I get enthusiastic about the stuff that's advertised as being able to weld aluminium panels together without having to use oxy-acetylene gear. Learned Counsel bought a bunch of the aluminium sticks and, leaving them with me to have a go, promptly left the country.

That went well. Not to worry, I'll roll up a new cylinder, put a joggle in and rivet it together. I did that but marked out the length at 271 instead of 371mm. That's par for the course so I wasn't overly apoplectic. Two lines are drawn on the sheet, the inner line being the fold line for the flange. Dopey cut on the inner line, so yet another sheet had to be marked out, cut, and shaped. Heaven help me when I start the bodywork!

Anyway, this is roughly how it all goes together...

... with the cockpit side clamped and sealed with rubber windscreen edging. The plates are there to give the setup some rigidity.

Knowing how things have a tendency to turn out other than I sometimes hope, it was with some trepidation that I fitted the heater matrix into its aluminium housing and pop-rivetted it together.

I'll have to add a strap to stop the box from falling forwards, although the water pipes should take care of that. Still, having belt and braces is no bad thing.

The first line of stitching has been added to the Talbot's hood. From here it gets a bit tricky as the corner pieces determine the lay of the cloth and the overall tension. The upholsterer is going to visit armed with her French chalk to mark everything up. So far, so good.

Leon has been to the Suffolk Rolling Road to tune up his Coventry-Climax engined Special in readiness for the season's hooliganism.

I saw the data printout - it didn't make any sense to me, but as I'm duty cook for the next Special Builder's Breakfast Club, I'll see what he has to say.

I was out on a job the other day, and rooting about in the grass during a break, I came across this water pump. I didn't have a lot of time to spare, but I shall go back and have a closer look. Chain drive - you can just see the sprocket - and a conrod either side of the master rod that connects to the piston. There's a plaque on it which should reveal the maker's name.

Staying with the discovery theme; a while back a couple of ditches were being cleared up the lane from me. I know there's a Roman road running quite close by, and I wondered if these were cobbles from its construction. The bottom right image in the composite is a run that deer, hares, and rabbits use when they're moving about at night.

I didn't finish the aluminium soldering saga; I've learnt from a chum who turned up whilst I was cursing about the sticks, that what they don't tell you is that they work only on a certain type of aluminium - Dural apparently - which explains a lot.