With us both still putting in long hours on the day job, weekends working on CDK have become a bit of a chore although for Richard provide a welcome break from staring at monitor all week.

We have managed to source a few bits and pieces recently including some brand new entrance door rubbers and 'D' section stainless steel lower trim thanks to Russ Smith putting us in contact with a supplier in Suffolk. A quote has also been obtained for the manufacture of a complete set of window rubbers to replace the perished set we have. No Christmas presents for anyone this year then!

The gradual job of putting CDK back together continues. Richard has, with the help of a large tin of 'evil stick' , fixed the formica back onto the off side pillars and window surrounds which, although only a small job, makes the interior look a whole lot better. The first interior wall formica panel has also been refitted along with the capping strip. Quite what we are going to do about the rest of the panelling along this side is, at the moment, a bit of a mystery as the remaining sections were too badly water damaged to reuse. Anyone know where we can lay our hands on some birds-eye maple formica?

The rear seat box has been test fitted and fits perfectly but won't be fixed in just for the moment as with it not in place there is much more light at the back end. The rest of the boot and rear nameglass framework has been detached to enable new pieces of steel angle to be welded in.

A couple of sections of steel work which form the boot sill and support for the rear fibreglass moulding have gone away to be fabricated. Once these are back we will have all the components to put the whole of the boot back together - the last major reconstruction job on the bodywork. We already have the new boot walls (the originals had more holes than a tea bag) and floor rails. Once this lot is in the final exterior side panels can go on.

Below is a pic of the emergency exit door area which has seen some extensive work including having to replace a section of the floor. This area is almost complete but final fixing will only take place once the remaining work on the wiring has been undertaken. It is not particularly evident from the pic how much of a big job this bit was - whilst we had access all the chassis framework behind was cleaned up, hoses and clips replaced a a general clearing out of 30 years of road grime made. From the amount of crap we removed, CDK will definitely need to be re-weighed once it is finished!

A tentative start has been made recently on the mechanical restoration. The first job for Steve has been to remove the completely wasted shock absorbers - a job which then revealed the need to replace the upper mounting brackets which had rusted through. One job always seems to lead to two on this restoration! Luckily we've found a local supplier for some new ones - at a price! While the shocks are out of the way access to the chassis and axle / brake area is easier so Richard has once again spent time in his favoured confined spaces!

Mid September Steve took a break from construction duties to give the dents etc on the body panels a first coating of filler. CDK is getting a step closer to repaint time.............. maybe next Year!

At the end of the month we took the opportunity to take some of the stored bits and pieces out of the locker - and have either refitted then (such as the front corner pillar covers) or finished off their renovation for fitting at a later (hopefully not too much later) date.