Been tinkering again after a long period of distractions. Traveling, visiting, eating and all that time consuming stuff old folk seem to do. First task was to get the Californian running and back in the front shed. The overdrive had been causing issues and I decided to refit the original four speed to get it back on the road, with the help of a set of 3.89 gears I pulled out of a Hunter some time ago. Had always believed what I was told, that they would not work in the original Mk VIII housing. Seems I was misled and the Hypoid bevel centre section goes straight in, just changed the dif spider gears to match the coarse spline axles.  Clean out half the shed so I have plenty of room and popped 66M1NX in the middle up on stands Next step to refresh memory of where we  had got to. The rust trap under the front guard being the most obvious starting point Drivers side front guard Passenger side front floor Leaky rust holes in the rear screen opening. had been previously "fixed" wi...

 Thought I would start a new page for the reconstruction work, Having removed all the outer parts that were in the way the little rust trap was revealed so today I cut the rotten part out of the top and cleaned all the debris out. Also gave the under guard area a good going over with a wire brush to remove all the loose dirt, sticky BS and loose paint. A fair amount of dirt in there. Looking better now The lower part is still relatively solid so a little more clean and grind first The light spots are the holes that were originally visible from the engine bay. This piece will need to be cut out and replaced. This level of rust damage is not seen.  It appears as little bubbles in the paint, Cleaning the outer part back and repainting the area is a temporary measure only as the cancer is still in there growing slowly. This is why I decided to  go in hard and treat every place I could and stop it coming back. Another day of cleaning the panels. Coming along nicely. Slightly o...