Since I had to take the manifolds off, and I know that a couple of the thin gaskets blew out, I thought I'd run a file over the flanges while I was cleaning them up, just see how flat they were. They weren't. Which is amazing, considering this is 1/2" plate that those tubes are welded to, but stainless loves to warp and pull

Pulled a few things apart yesterday, so I could get in and retorque the head. All of the head nuts turned a good bit, so it did need it. At some point, I should perhaps find (or make) the funny offset spanners for doing that with all the manifolds and rocker shaft on, but for now it took dismantling. In the process, I took the opportunity to put on a nice proper gasket.

A sharp chisel works wonders for getting under that lip and peeling all the spot-welds! Carefully form the new piece

Overcame inertia for a bit today, only for a few hours, and did a bit more roof patching. Grotty double-layer? Appears to have been patched from the inside. So I cut that out, welded in a new piece, and noticed a pinhole a little further to the right, which I chased around for a few inches before cutting that out too.

Still need to fettle the wiper mechanism a little, but I've got the washer bottle installed. It's not got a great lot of capacity, but I have a plan for that in time. The washer jets were a bit of a pain, though. I planned on using the 'original' jets (they're not original per-se, but they were in the

Well, it appears I survived the opening of the new year, just about. I've made a start on deleting some of the natural ventilation in the roof, around the cupola hole. Turns out the cupola is only spot-welded in place, so it's not proving too difficult to work my way around with a grinder and a sharp chisel, with only a little hammer work needed afterwards. Don't hit the pink squishy bits. Took advantage of some semi-decent weather, a little bit of sun making

Not much progress made, recently. I've been wrapped up in a body-building project at work that has been sapping my energy. (Also, it's getting cold this time of year!) I do have a week off coming up, and though I'm not making any promises about progress, I'd like to get some stuff done.

That's ... certainly something to discover when I get there. Looks to have been wind-blown, because -- as I discovered the hard way -- there was a mini sand-dune on every ridge of the roller shutter, which then poured into the unit as each slat rolled over the top.