This week saw more major surgery on the foam model to accommodate the new fibreglass bonnet.

Some of the glue hadn't worked where I'd packed in bits of foam to reshape things as the design changed and they all fell out onto the floor. I put it back together with glue and long woodscrews.

The new bonnet fits very nicely and will be useful in determining how it's all going to work.

I'm thinking maybe some sort of cleverly eccentric hinge or combination of hinges and runners because I need the bonnet to rise and come forward at the same time, a bit like the Saabs I have owned in the past.

I've hacked about the Riley bumper and radiator support to leave two beams on which I should be able to mount hinges and maybe a gas strut.

The bumper frame is quite a heavy fabrication and includes the original jacking points, but there's enough strength in the new subframe to take a jack, so they're out too.

With the radiator out of the way, I could determine how to increase the arc of the alternator mount and so tighten the fan belt. The simplest solution would be to make a new bracket. I can't turn the current one upside down - which would handily lift the hinge point, as the slots for the block's bolts are eccentric.

An evening run to Friston for the village's car and motorcycle event was an easy 100 mile round trip. This Briggs & Stratton runabout took my eye. In the latter stages of the return journey, I noticed the water temperature gauge was indicating 10° lower than was usual. A failed thermostat was the culprit.

This stripped-down Norton also ticked most of the boxes, but I wasn't so keen on the handlebars - I would change them for something more 'dropped' in style, though that would make a long ride unbearable.

And with a rigid rear end and girder forks, this might also spoil your day. This is how our local Highways Department works: a member of the public reports a pothole or series of holes in the road and the highways people send out an investigator. If meeting the criteria, the depressions are marked for attention. By the time the road-mending team come along, despite a second pothole only a couple of metres from the first, it's previously determined though now visibly inaccurate status as being within acceptable limits, precludes its repair. Clever.