[Darrin Wright]

Thanks Ryan for your words and Colin for your offer, unfortunately I have to be back at work in a weeks time and it will take a little longer than that to get it done.

With the temp today expected to be around 37-38 deg C and before Ian had to go back to Melbourne, we set about riveting the LHF brake rod pivot point/post (located on the gunners floor area) back into the hull. I had a new pivot post machined up a little while ago and had bought some 3/8 cold rivets from a swap meet. We measured and cut the rivets to length and then placed them, one at a time, into position. Utilising a bottle jack from underneath to keep them in place we then heated them with the oxy. When red hot Ian compressed (bashed) them with a small sledge hammer until they had compressed into the hole. Then it was a matter of repeating the process until all 4 rivets had been completed.
Touched it up with undercoat when cool.

Later this afternoon I installed the air duct junction piece with correct length hose onto the top of the carby, installed the 2 engine stabiliser rods from the rear of the engine to the rear of the hull, installed the starter solenoid and positive cable & conduit into the hull between the solenoid and starter motor.
I wrapped the left hand exhaust pipe with a heat wrapping and went to install it between manifold and exhaust elbow in the floor. With slotted holes in the exhaust pipe section I would have thought this was an easy 5 min job. No. This task required the manifold to be removed, loosely assembled together, placed into position and then all fasteners done up.

I went to install the accelerator linkage rod, but this rod appears to be bent in a couple of places to go around the starter motor, manifold and water pump and then into the engine bay divider plate to the pivot linkage mounted to the centre bulkhead. More research required before installation as I don't want to just bend it anywhere.

Will continue tomorrow depending on the heat, but this afternoon a friends swimming pool was calling....