Today I've sent the wheel centres to the wheel builders. I've also done a deal on a pair of Marchal headlamps. Cripes, I hardly dare breath!

On a less knee-weakening note, More Learned Counsel reminded me that the Riley Pathfinder came equipped with a right hand gear-change (for right-hand-drive countries) and he knows a chap whose got one not far from where I sit. It would be interesting to see how the linkage is arranged. I'm still going to do my own setup but it would be nice to see if I've got it more or less right and that there's no obvious gaffe in the whole malarkey.

I'm itching to get the chassis and sundries back but I've contented myself with cleaning up the front hubs in readiness for the work on the brakes. There was a good 80-odd years of mud and grease to remove but underneath it was all remarkably well-preserved. It seems that maintenance was kept to a minimum as there's little evidence of rounded nuts and the like.

You'll just have to imagine the kingpin vertical.... and the other side, sans actual hub;

All nice and clean. I don't know if I mentioned but when I was removing the kingpins I had to give them a pretty manly whack or three with the persuader and steel drift - they were quite tight in the brass bushes. D'you know, there's not a mark on them, not even the merest hint of a scratch or dimple. I don't know what they're made of but it's pukka stuff. There's no discernible play in the bushes but I won't be able to properly get to grips with that until the wheel's are on and I've got a bit more leverage.

Anyway, in the first picture the brake rod is quite distinct and the 2 brake shoe pivot bolts just below the end of the rod are where I propose to attach a bracket to mount the hydraulic cylinder. The top cap of the kingpin might prove to be a bit tiresome but as that's fixed, I'll have to work around it. I've been a bit lazy about the calcs for the brake parts but I'll get there - it's the sort of thing I like to do on a wet afternoon in a big comfy chair with a big cup of tea.

And when the teabags run out, it's water for the foreseeable - following the recent out-goings I'm on short commons.