As jobs mount up, it's a good plan to create a list. Like The Other Wright Brother, I've always had this habit.

At the top of my list was the Buick starter motor which I'd promised to attend to on my return from Belgium. The idea is to add a dynastart with a belt that runs around the circumference of the flywheel.

Armed with a technical drawing which showed most of the dimensions (except for some reason the shaft length, which you might think was pretty important) I made up a dummy dynastart to assess where and how I could install it. Fortunately, a substantial piece of angle iron runs across the chassis in about the right place. Getting the belt grip right which will probably entail a jockey wheel, will be the tricky bit.

Rebuilding The Great Collector's Alvis 12/50 carbs certainly helped the running, but not enough to be convinced that problems didn't exist elsewhere. The head had to come off as the compressions, though even, were low at around the 80psi mark. All the valve guides were hopelessly worn. I had in the back of my mind Mr Holmes' handy hydraulic guide extractor, but he reminded me that it was specifically for the Wolseley 6/80 and Morris 6 heads with valve guide drillings at ½" diameter. The tool wouldn't fit the 5/16" Alvis guides. I would have to extract the old and insert the new lot before popping up to Mr Holmes to recut the seats in the head parallel with the guides.

After ninety-five years in the head, the guides would laugh at a 4lb hammer and drift - which would also expose the head to damage. There was no alternative but to make up a press.

I turned a drift up from EN8...

... with a return to fit into an 8mm plate which would spread the load under a 12-ton bottle jack borrowed from my free-standing press (I first tried the system with a 2-ton jack - no joy). Each of the guides yielded with an almighty bang and the rest was easy. I'm hoping that I can use the jig to press in the new guides - in my enthusiasm, I didn't think about that part of the operation when welding up the frame.

Following the success of the fuel gauge conversion, it was logical to experiment with converting the water temperature gauge, and the stores produced another suitable donor, this time I think an instrument from a British Leyland dashboard. Testing the gauge with the new probe produced the desired result.

Again, it would be a bit of a squeeze, and turning the newer mechanism upside down would see the needle operating in the correct sense.

All went well...

...and I have only one more instrument to tackle - the ammeter, which I'm not sure I can hook up to the alternator - before the full complement is functional.

As the engine start-up approaches and to give it its best shot, I've ordered a new red spring and set of needles (AA, 81, and VS) for the H4 carb - as per the list.