Sadly, we didn't finish the Landrover by the school holidays, but still, we're 'getting somewhere' as we say. There's soooo many small details that need doing, such as:

• sides painted
• underdoor panels painted
• battery check point on dash
• seatbelts installed
• back door
• seals between roof and sides, sides and tub
• brackets to hold the sides firm in place

And so on and so forth. Sometimes I feel like a right bitch coming out and saying 'finished yet?' - I'm only semi joking but I'm also kinda excited.

We bent some aluminium over the roof and pop riveted it in. LAndrovers are famous for rivets so what's a few more hey? In this picture it's yet to be painted the same colour as the roof - the glue and sealant is busy drying.

One wierd thing is the paint came up in two different colours - bummer. Variations between tins I suppose. Oh well, adds to the general quirkiness hey?

He's been so angry at the door he was trying to fix - some 15 hours of sanding and priming and spot welding. Finally, he got to the point where it was ready to paint green. He hooked it up, painted it, went to take it off as the paint was running - and it felt face down on the gravel like a piece of buttered toast. Honestly it was awful - gravel and leaves stuck to the paint. I'm suprised he didn't swear blind!

I retreated inside and went straight on Facebook marketplace. Would you believe there was a 2015 Puma door for $580? They're worth over 2000 brand new. This was basically a dream! I quickly messaged him and said 'Would you take $400?" and he said: 'For you, Mrs River, anything!'. Of course, I did a double take - it was a student from ten years ago! How funny. I jumped in the van and did a three hour round trip to Melbourne to collect. Boy did I win wife points.

I'm a firm believer that there's a solution to every problem. Whilst it did cost us a little, it's not exactly over budget. We had also sold the dual cab section to make up costs - to a Landrover owner in a cool Perentie 110 that had done a trip round Australia. His wife was pregnant so coverting it to a dual cab seemed like a great idea.

Luckily the lock we had fitted, and we sourced some rubber and glass. I do think we'll leave it dark grey as honestly, Jamie can't cope with more painting. It suits the colour scheme anyway and we're not after a picture - we want our own quirky, warts and all Defender 130 Panelvan.

Whilst we haven't made the deadline to take it away on holidays with us, we've mostly achieved the goal of finishing the main part of the build at this part of the term - next term we'll be doing the camper build, or at least the bare bones of it. These things take time!

Just before we left for holidays we took it for a spin to get beers. Well deserved, don't you think?

Oh and just checking to see if you are paying attention. There's something on this car that gives away which part of England Jamie is originally from. Can you guess?

With Love,

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