1956 Red Goddess - No socks for this birthday!

That's what you get in the truck aftermarket but they're way better than the original makeup mirrors. Squaddies used to reckon they were only good for reversing into things!

Would a 15mm / 22mm copper pipe bender do the job?

Winter work does not only mean working on the Goddess.

When we did the new gearbox mounts down at the Volcano Lair last year, Dangerous' estimate of the time needed was very optimistic especially as the plasma cutter he brought for the cutting of the steel plate broke down. The weather forecast said that heavy rain was coming through and lo and behold an hour before we were finished it bucketed down. Working upside down in a running stream is something I'm not anxious to repeat but worse was yet to come. It was dark when we finished and I had to drive the half mile from the Lair back to the Field of Dreams. After engaging 4WD and chugging round the neighbouring farmer's field to get the Goddess in the right alignment to squeeze down C0wSh!t Lane I realised the total inadequacy of the Goddess' lights, wipers and condensation control systems. The only solution was to drop the drivers window, stick my head out and hope not the be blinded by brambles. Get to the main road, stop, lie in water again to select high range 2WD, wipe all the insides of all the windows (they was clear when I started Officer!) and trundle off to the field. Passed the electronic speed sign in the village that indicated I was doing no illegal speed and thanked me for my consideration, cheeky barstewards. Arrived at the field gate to find a very p!ssed off SWMBO waving a torch. She'd moved her Defender into the field with the lights on to give me runway type illumination. The old field gate was 10 feet wide and the Goddess is nine and a half feet, the width of the lane combined with the turning circle means that I have to go in at an angle to miss trees and the ditch on both sides of the entrance. It's bad enough in daylight but at night with the rain, the condensation, a not happy wife it was a nightmare. At one point she told me that the offside was 2mm away from one gatepost and the nearside back wheel was hanging in free air over the ditch. Engine off, put in gear, handbrake firmly on, crawl under truck to engage 4WD and hope some lovely person had not left me some dog sh!t in the gateway to lie on. I got it in the field without a scratch, didn't bog it down in the soft bits and put the second best cab cover over it. Mollified SWMBO by saying it would never happen again (fingers crossed).

This weekend made that more of a certainty by installing a 12ft gate, cutting away the bank and some branches

That looks nice and sturdy!

One thing I learnt over the many years of keeping horses/ponies at various stables is that the gates never fit properly. I was always having to lift gates up, or give them a good shove and beware of metal gates touching electric fences.

I'd give the bolt hole a good squirt with an aeorosol of cavity wax.

With the rain set in for a few days, dog walking and sheep feeding over, the temperature in the workshop higher than 6 degrees I decided a few hours fettling the art deco bulkhead lamp was in order. The original wood base was hacked off the old roof when it was replaced and the whole gubbins has languished in a box for a long while.

First up mark out the battery position for the new LED lighting module. I'm making it rechargeable so there are no untidy wires and it should last ages before recharging.



Afraid that drawing another rotation would probably open a portal to a dungeon dimension I started the job with a hand-held router. It's not ideal for the job but it's all I've got.



Battery fits along with the voltage regulator, switch and various cabling



Pretty close to breaking through



Few more jobs to do like finding some B.S. Pale Cream 352 semi-gloss to paint it in quantities under 10 litres, mount the switch and then mount the unit.



Now I'm agonizing whether to MOT the old girl this year or not. My local show has just been cancelled and that's mid-August. Not a lot happening at Goodwood and I'm less and less into trackdays. Ho hum

Definitely this! Even if it may be a bit of a faff

MOT it - vehicles don’t like being not used - as I have found out several times

Faff? It's two days off, one to deliver it to Bourne Transport and hang around while they do a pre-test so we don't get any prohibitions. Give the go-ahead for any necessary work. Next possible day Bourne presents it for MOT, I go along as the operator for a bit of special pleading. All good? I get to drive her home with wallet lightened by about £500. Problems? Don't even think about it.