Jo NZ

Don't forget the beastie boy - the 4.1 litre straight six Cortina Mk4 built in Oz

I'm not surprised they couldn't see the difference . After all, a Marina is just a Morris Minor with all the faults put back in...

Maybe this will help - it's a Touring bodied 4 seater, but with cycle wings.... This is the picture I used for the bottom bracket on the firewall

It looks to me like the step down the side is too narrow, and the angled skirt needs to be wider and blend into it. I'd start by bonding a piece of Pocher scrap to each side of the back of the firewall, hack the front back to the right width and then build up the angled bit to match. The corners are too rounded on that anyway. Don't underestimate the use of Pocher scrap for filling holes: the wheel jigs are a great source of flat sheet, and if fitted carefully and cyano'd in, it's almost undetectable.

Thanks for all the likes! Re the Airfix bits, it's probably the biggest bit that you can see on the whole model... Oil and fuel lines - as far as I can see, the fuel line goes pretty much from the carbs to inside the nearside chassis leg, and back to the tank. The fuel pressurisation pump is also on the nearside of the cockpit, which seems in keeping. I'm making a big assumption with the oil lines, and reckon that they connect to the two connectors on the bottom of the sump, so the circuit would be pump-cooler-sump in-sump out-pump. Which connector is which is another matter. I'll apply Occam's razor and do it the obvious way...

Thanks, everybody! The first bit to be finished - the blower assembly

Some other places... Wanaka wings and wheels museum Airforce museum in Christchurch Omaka (Peter Jackson's WW1 dioramas - a must see) all in the South Island. MOTAT has two sites with a tram between them. start with the aviation site, it's got more parking. The easiest way to get to Hood aerodrome from AKL is to fly to Wellington, and rent a car - it's about 1.5-2 hours drive. Distinctly possible - on one of my birthdays I flew to Auckland from Wellington just to see the BMW art cars.... Looking up the fares (airnz), you could fly out at 7am, back at 8.30pm for $260. That would give you 7 hours at Hood...

Are you going to Wings over Wairarapa, 22-24 Feb?

Nice build. for the rear view mirror on my Sprite I drilled the stem 0.5mm and pinned it to the dash. Never trust glue without reinforcement!

Put the drum on bricks...

The Napier mob make it down a couple of times a year - maybe tie in then?

Do you ever get down to IPMS Wellington?

lovely ivy, but on my trees the bloody stuff goes straight up and doesn't spiral round poetically - unless of course you've trained it to do that?

Must be a new exhaust pipe! I’ll put some ash grey in it ( no soot, I kept it reasonably in tune, and in those days it ran on leaded) Thanks for all the kind comments!

Painted a few years ago, it's been sitting in it's box because all the vinyl deteriorated and the tyres split. They were crossplies anyway! I finally got hold of some Mk1 Escort rally tyres and cut them down to look like period radials. This is the high detail kit with the cast chassis and wheels, and photo etched badges etc. Sadly the Sprite badge on the back (it looked great) was sacrificed to the carpet god. Other bits and pieces: the exhaust was replaced by aluminium tube, front bumper discarded (it was an optional extra at the time and my Frogeye never had one), and it's painted in BMC Cherry Red - an unusual colour, only used on the Mk1 Sprite, I think. Rattle-can paint was mixed by an automotive supplier. The colours are as my car was (hence the black seats). I used red and orange Sharpies to colour the rear lights - I think I might do it on the next car too, it's really easy to get a good finish. With an 848cc engine (with twin 1 1/8" SUs!) it could never be described as fast, but it was good at overtaking on roundabouts. I drove one a couple of years ago and couldn't believe how small it was.