The last few weeks have heralded quite a few developments, some bad some good so just to recap, here's the story to date.

On Saturday the 22nd of July my Uncle kindly returned to get the brake system finished off. We managed to get this done which was a huge boost, this was an easier task than expected as one of the front brake cylinders had been replaced by the previous owner and thus could be easily bled. The other one wasn't so helpful, but we managed to open the nipple in the end, so now the brakes work as intended. We still need new shoes on the rear brakes, but we can't do this until the axle seals are fixed. In addition we tried to work on the handbrake, but couldn't remove the drum, so we put that on hold until we could find out what the trick to doing this was. While the centre seat panel was out I took the opportunity to remove some of the 1/2" thick mud covering the gear box. On Sunday I continued the cleaning after purchasing a suitable scrubbing brush for the task.

On the following Friday (28th) I got a chance to visit a local scrapyard where I picked up an aerial and a cigarette lighter with socket from a Saab. The socket will be wired into the dash to allow me to fit a larger fan to augment the interior cooling system. The fan itself was only £3 from Aldi and resembles a small oscilating desk fan with a big clip instead of a foot, that can be attached to the dashboard. While I was at the yard I spotted a white 109" Land Rover from which I took some few screws and fitttings.

Over the weekend of the 29/30th I pressure washed the Land Rover and found two large rust holes. One of these I had seen before in one of the front crossmembers, but the washer had revealed the rust's full progression. The other was in the side of the bulkhead (under the driver's door hinge) and went right through the section to the interior. These caused me to wonder if the Landy was doomed, and to plan a trip down to RJs on the following Monday. I still fitted one pedal rubber on the Sunday as I thought just in case I could save the Land Rover, it would be a job done.

Down at RJs on Monday, I got some very bad news, the rusty crossmember couldn't be replaced, and the bulkhead might not be fixable. They also told me the gearbox problem I had (the 4x4 lever not engaging) couldn't be fixed without removing the gearbox. This was pretty much terminal news.

Clutching at straws, I decided to email a rebuilder to get a quote on a chassis swap for a new galvanised one, and for a gearbox rebuild. It would take a couple of days to get back an estimate of £3000 for the chassis swap and £300 for the gearbox, but in the meantime other events had occurred.

On Wednesday (03/08) My Uncle came back to finish the handbrake, but after looking at the rusty parts was certain the chassis at least could be welded. This would be much less than £3000, and perhaps the bulkhead could be patched too, or if not filled with bodyfiller, so the project was back on. He also thought we should try to fix the axle seals ourselves and since that only left the gearbox to do, we could try that too! Buoyed by this news we got the handbrake drum off (by dropping the prop shaft the task was easier) and found the shoes were completely worn out and the actuator pivot and bush were badly worn. If these were replaced the hand brake would be in service again. As we didn't have the parts available, and given the weather was turning nasty, we put the drum back on and vowed to get the job finished another day.

Returning to the Land Rover I had spotted on the previous Friday, I wanted to go and see if it could give us any other useful spares. The first time I had 30mins in the yard, so not long enough to removed much, so I wanted to go back with a full day to hand. On Saturday the 5th of August, my step father and I went back to the yard and removed a good lot of spares and interesting items. We took the following items:

- A new rear door with wheel hanger, wiper mount and washer
- Spare headlight bulbs, interior bulbs and fuses
- A radio with 3 speakers
- 2 Front light guards and 1 rear (one had been taken already)
- Handbrake return spring
- Interior Switch gear, fuse box and clock
- 2 Spot lights
- Rear water pump and resevoir

Not much time to work on the Land Rover this coming weekend as I'm off to Silverstone to watch the GP Masters race where Damon Hill could be racing alongside Nigel Mansell and Emerson Fittipaldi.