As I no longer have an old car to drive about in...

... The Great Collector generously lent Counsel and me his Wolseley Hornet to whizz along to Helmingham Hall's Classic Car show.

The hall is a magnificent edifice, privately owned and occupied by the Tollemeche family, who I believe have been connected to Helmingham since the Norman invasion. I used to maintain a motorised wheelbarrow for one of the family - there was always a quantity of cake and tea on the table after the work was done. They're a civilised bunch in my experience.

The show was a shade disappointing. Modern 'classics' and brand-new vehicles were in abundance and only a handful of vintage cars were present among the many hundreds of exhibitors. It was fun to see a few of the cars that were familiar to me as a child in the 50's and 60's, but the best of show by a long shot was this speedboat fashioned from (if I remember correctly) a damaged pontoon float from a Supermarine Stranraer. It looked more 'Walrus' size to me, but either way, it was a real gem.

My prototype bonnet hinges arrived during the week. Laser cutting and CNC folding really ticks all the boxes. I would have struggled to get all the holes to line up doing it by hand. I could do it, but the ruler gremlins would probably have had the better of me.

A jury-rig to see if in principle the idea looked sound. The next stage will be to bend up the tube to the profile of the wings and radiator shell, tack it to the hinges and test the fandango for real.

After an abortive attempt to bore a hole in the rubber bung that I'm experimenting with for the starter motor drive, I moved from the mill to the internet. With a lathe and a piece of copper tube sharpened at one end, some clever chap had done exactly what I was hoping to achieve. His requirements were different to mine and lacking copper tube of the correct size, I turned up a brass cutter from some hexagon stock.

So far so good, though in my usual haste, I forgot to make provision for mounting the tool in the chuck, so turned up an end piece and soldered it in.

I couldn't believe how quickly and neatly the job was done. Handy hint and tip: oil doesn't work - use only washing-up liquid as a lubricant.

One of the things I was concerned about was removing the rubber plug without damaging the cutter. I needn't have worried - as the cutter progressed, the air behind the plug compressed and at the end of the cut, the plug shot out like a potato from an exhaust pipe!

I noticed later that someone had cut a hole in the night.