What a long three days putting a front end together! After weeks of waiting for the weather to warm up, two days of 22 - 25 degrees meant it was perfect to finally spray the wings of the Defender 130. The man was pretty happy he finally worked out how to get the finish right, and they came up better than we'd hoped. Of course, we aren't going for perfect - perfect would mean spending a couple of thousand dollars for new panels, but we decided to go for 'charm'. Somehow they ended up curing inside on the rug, but lucky his wife likes Landrovers...

By Saturday morning, this boy was ready to roll. Of course, it's one of those projects that you think it's just a matter of bolting it all together which can't take too long, surely, but then you have to find the bits, and come across the usual hiccups that mean it ends up taking all weekend.

We found that the front headlights were stone chipped, but luckily we have a mate who lives up the road who is into Landrovers (he is the one that made the honeycomb grill for us and the bashplate you can see in the final photo) and he had a whole box of them that he didn't want, so we managed to get two for free. That's a bonus, as Defender parts are not cheap and every little thing you buy adds up.

It's so exciting to feel like we ACTUALLY have a Defender in our garage! Still a lot of work to be done still on the interior, getting the brakes done, the doors - hell, lots and lots of work to be done still! But this was a HUGE milestone and we couldn't be more thrilled. I tell you what, that was a well deserved cuppa tea, my man!