This week certainly has been full. Starting off on Monday we had a delegate from the My vision photography workshop. This is where top  professional photographers are assigned to a destination to capture a day in the life of. We were lucky to be invited to be one of the venues last year and even more lucky to be chosen again this year.

 However this year didn't run quite so smoothly for our delegate Rob who had his work cut out in trying to find a theme to work to for his project. Beau and I spent most of the day with our heads buried in various cars and Sadie was just going to have none of it.

By day two Rob arrived to find only me in the workshop- Beau had been sick all night and I think that Sadie might have been indulging in a little industrial action but as she works independently she can put in extra hours next week to catch up. What saved the day was the cheerful participation of some of my suppliers and sub contractors who we took the opportunity to go and see through the day. Thanks guys.

 Despite distractions in the workshop many projects are moving forwards. The Triumph Stag that I thought would be going home this week has now sprung a leak on one front calliper. There was no warning sign which is a little scary. Usually the calliper either starts binding or weeping before the dam bursts. Fortunately Beau was giving the car the final once over before it went and spotted the tell tale wet marks on the inside edge of the tyre. Needless to say we will be going over the braking system again to make sure there are no other nasty faults to be discovered. Both callipers are away being overhauled.

 We have no less than three Spitfires in at the moment. The Mk 3 full restoration is nearly through the welding stage after roughly six weeks- not too long. I'm now fitting the brand new bonnet. The Gt6 Roadster is also progressing well. Just waiting for the next batch of spares. The final Spitfire is the 1500 which has now had it's head gasket replaced and work is now focused on restoring and fitting a period hard top.

 The vintage rover restoration has now reached the welding stage. First phase will be done here which includes most of the inner panel work. The outer panels are being restored by our painter who owns the wheeling machine and knows how to fabricate those complicated curvy shapes. One painted "Snowdrop will be delivered back to us for re-assembly- hopefully before the summer gets here.

 The first panel to be worked on is the rear inner wheel arch. Here the previous repair had been made by plating over the original rusty panel. Although the old repair was a decent job and has stood the test of time, now was the chance to do things properly.

 Firstly a cardboard template was made and taped into position. Markers were drawn all around so that if the patch template was removed- I'd be able to put it back in exactly the same spot. After I was happy with the template, I marked the outline and then cut the old steel out.

The newly fabricated repair section was carefully filed out until a tight fit with no overlap was visible . This was then welded in from both sides and sanded back

The first patch is one of three that will be needed here. One small problem is that only one of the original body nuts is left. I had wrongly assumed that this was the usual cage and captive nut but it isn't. The "nut" appears to have been forged from a solid bar that was then drilled and tapped. I can get these made but it wouldn't surprise me if someone makes them.

 The RS2000 started again this week also- and then stopped. I have explained  several times over three months to our engineers what the tool I need to fix this car should look like. This time I really thought that I'd got there when I arrived and collected it ( fourth attempt). The first trial fit revealed the flaw though- it's been made with a right hand thread on one side when it was supposed to have a left hand thread so it was back to the engineers again. It really will be a nifty tool when it works. 

 The Karman Ghia project is now on. This has stood for some time but the work is now off to a good start and I don't anticipate the welding taking too long to do.