.....now I've seen that the beast has got a bit of bite, I've revisited the rear gearbox mounting design and, not beefed it up as such but, made it a bit more effective just in case the tail gets it into its head to wag the dog. So, out with the tube and in with the plate, althought there is a bit of tube in it:

It comprises 2 bits of 3mm plate with a split 3" internal diameter steel tube welded into the bottom of the plates. In turn, the two halves of the tube have flats welded on to accomodate 5/16th bolts and, as the gearbox has to be dropped for removal, it should be a simple case of removing the lower half of the clamp. The tube will be lined with anti-vibration matting of the sort that you slip under lathes and compressors - no reason why it shouldn't work.

That was this morning's bit of brain exercise; the next thing to ponder was the steering column mounting. At this point, Learned Counsel dropped by for a cup of tea on his way to the butchers and, addressing the problem of the steering box mount - it being originally mounted to the Hillman engine block and now needing re-engineering to attach it to the chassis rail - summed it up in an instant and said, "Well, just turn it upside down". So I did. And it'll work.

It is a bit more involved than that; the column mounting casting which is bolted to the box is slightly eccentric so I had to heat up the casting (the column tube is only soft soldered into the casting) and spin the tube 180 degrees to keep the casting in the same position but retain the throttle and ignition controls the right way up now the box was upside down.......  I'll shut up, here's a picture of the now upside down box and the reversed drop arm.

I'll have to extend the drop arm ball about 2" to retain the angle of the drag link in relation to the steering arm on the offside front hub - the drag link should be dead straight when the wheels are straight. The set up should look a bit like this:

And, after removing the steering wheel, I discovered that, under the paint and dirt, the engine controls are nickel plated:

Trebles all round then.