... has been quite difficult these last few weeks but, I'm not complaining - it's cold for long enough. The Austin will also be keeping cool now that the water pump has been fitted. I was in the workshop at 6.30 last Saturday, determined to make as much progress as I could because I'm working for Cook for part of this coming weekend.

That's the major part of the installation with the gearbox and engine oil all topped up and then I set about the water pump. Matching the bore of the pump to the water inlet manifold and radiator wasn't the chore I imagined and with some odd bits of hose from other jobs, I got the inlet manifold to pump sorted out quite neatly.

The bits and pieces slip easily between the crankcase and the dynamo. I was very lucky to have a stainless steel 90 degree bend of just the right diameter - left over from the SU carb conversion - which set the tone for the rest of the job. I had to go down to the plumbing shop for the fittings to go on the radiator to pump side of the business, plus a couple of Jubilee's and bit of hose to finish off. Because the water will be pumping round the system, I don't think that the reduction in bore size either side of the pump is going to matter much, if at all; it might even speed the flow up a bit. The only thing to watch out for is the pump failing, then the reduced bore size will make a difference to the thermo-syphon effect. We'll just have to keep an eye on the temperature gauge.

In between all this, I managed to rub down the Hillman tank and give that a second coat of black. Next weekend - or the part left that I have to myself - I'm determined to get the Hillman tourer hood done. Actually, I'll probably get on with that during the week as I've had my friend's sewing machine for a couple of months and done nothing with it; he may ask for it back at any moment. And, the mention of sewing - needles - sharp bits of metal..... whilst I was lying on the floor of the workshop putting the sump tray back on the Austin, I must have unknowingly picked up a bit of metal because this morning I felt a scratchy thing on my shoulder. With the tweezers, I removed a piece of wire 12mm long!  I didn't even know it was there..... no sense, as they say.....

I've fished out an old switch which happened to have a 'W' on it and mounted that in between the choke and the starter. The wiring was dead easy because when I built the Austin and did the electrics, I put a bus bar for power behind the dash. There were a couple of terminals free so that saved a lot of fiddling about. I also found an old aircraft dashboard fuse-holder which I've mounted in the sparks bay under the bonnet. It's all turned out rather more neatly than I'd hoped.

Cool!