5th,6th & 7th May
I've said it before and I'll say it again, ooh err. What have I let myself in for.

The bottom's of both rear wings need attention I hope to get away with repair panels as opposed to complete wings. Inside the boot the floor where it meets the rear valance needs welding. The offside rear corner of the floor where the wheel arch, floor and inner wing meet up requires a lot of attention.

Removed the interior, what a job I had getting the seats out! Some T*@t had used all sorts nuts & bolts mixing af & metric of various sizes, sometimes together, metric nut on af bolt!! with the mandatory cross threading and shovel full of rust.

It appears that the drivers side of the car is in a lot worse state than the passenger side. Both sides have been welded before, the passenger side being a better quality job than the drivers side.

The passenger side will need a little patching and an outer sill. The drivers side however will need inner and outer sill's repairs to the floor,footwell,bulkhead and crossmember. A & B posts seem to be in good order both sides (touch wood).

12th &13th May
There has been too much sunbathing weather getting in the way of car restoration this weekend.

I decided to remove the petrol tank in readiness for welding, I had been telling Pat my wife that even though the car is 26 years old the petrol tanks don't rust on Spitfires! How wrong can a bloke be. I had undone the bolts keeping it in place and was just easing the tank out when I became aware of petrol pouring from the bottom.

Having been a cub scout in my younger days (before the dishonorable discharge, but that's another story), you would have thought I would have been prepared for a situation like this, Ha. I stood there imitating a little Dutch boy with my finger in the hole pondering what to do next.

There was only one thing to do, 10 yard dash through 2 doors to shed, grab petrol tin and back again, phew!! Made it. Having now got the tank out there was a tiny little hole about 2mm diameter, which had been caused by the raised edge of a previous patch, which must have also been plugging the hole.

19th & 20th May
I was going to go large with the angle grinder but, it was a bit chilly.

I had decided to cut out all the bad metal in the rear of the car this weekend, unfortunately it was a bit draughty where I have the car parked up at the moment, and I still haven't finished investigating all the rot. So I took the doors off, removed part of the dash and the gearbox tunnel.

I also had a bit of a dig around the tops of the rear wings and the sills. Its becoming apparent that the car has undergone at least two attempts to to get it sorted bodywork wise.

One done competently and the other, well its amazing how much string and newspaper you can stuff into holes. Particularly the ones made by a stick welder wielding elephant more used to working in a shipyard than on lightweight car body work.

My mental list of repair & replacement body panels is starting to grow at an alarming rate, I had better have a few slugs of Jack Daniels to help me sleep.

26th & 27th May + Weeks Hols
Potentially 9 Whole Days to work on car but not Sunday as its Pat's Birthday.

Saturday: I am feeling a little worse for wear, it was a works night out last night! Having a bit of a fuzzy head it took me a while to get going decided to carry on investigating what I had let myself in for, so it was off with the Glass Fibre front end to enable me to check out the front of the chassis.

Oh dear it doesn't look good, the front chassis member is well rotten along with the reinforcing gussets, and the first 12" of the chassis rails. The hinge pivot boxes have been plated up before I will probably have to try and fabricate new ones with what I have left. Oh well I will pack up for now and nip out for a birthday card for Pat.

Wednesday: It's now time to strip the paint from the body so I can see exactly what I have got to play with, if you know what I mean. I bought a tin of nitromors as I had just read a report in Practical Classics that it was their best buy, and you just had to scrape the paint off after 15 mins. Ha, maybe in Lab conditions but not in my condition.

I found that the first application removed the Orange paint and its undercoat, the second application removed the Black enamel, the third application removed the Red and the fourth and fifth removed the two different white coats!!

It had taken me half a litre and I hadn't even stripped 1 rear wing, this was going to be a long job.

Thursday: Early start today I'm off to a local motor factors to get another tin of Nitromors, after picking my self up off the floor, the price was nearly TWICE that from Halfords! The shop owner phoned his supplier to check his cost price. He was paying more for it "Trade" than us punters do "Retail".

On the way to Halfords I stopped off at Sports Car Supplies, Swalwell. I didn't buy anything but they were really very helpful.

I had just slapped a load of stripper on the car and the heaven's opened and the wind got up, I am still working outside at the moment as it's still another 4 weeks or so until we move house where I will have the most fantastic garage. Enough room for 3 cars and a couple of motorbikes.

After the rain stopped I was back at it stripping away, uncovering yet more rust and bodge, swearing happily. It was during one of the swearing sessions bent over the car I detected a pair of extra feet. Aaron my step son, had brought over his blow torch for me to try.

What a difference, the former 5 stage paint removal was now reduced to just one. Also when the rain came it didn't affect the paint removal by washing the stripper away.

Friday: Its a bit too windy today for the blow torch and the rain is a bit heavier today, I stripped a few more parts off the front end of the car, Clutch & Brake master Cylinders, Wiper motor and Radiator.

Saturday: The car is starting to to look like a restoration project now. I have stripped out the wiring loom, removed the dash and heating ducts. There is not much left to strip off the car now just what's left of the paint, I hope to get on with that tomorrow.

Sunday: Not much to report today. I managed to strip the paint from the passenger side wheel arch and both "A" posts, which uncovered a few more horrors. Both sides had cracks in the area of the door hinge mountings, I had better buy a heavy duty mig welder.

I was then hijacked and forced by "stern stare" by my better half, to do a bit of heavy duty gardening for my step daughter Victoria. One patio sized turf removing exercise later I'd had enough for one day.