Column

With the pedal box back in, time to sort out the steering column, as you’ll know if you’ve stripped the dash these were never painted from factory so the bare metal rusts up over time, more so if the interior has been damp.

Mine was a poor state so was taken back to bare metal and primed up and satin blacked.

The original insert fittings were missing so ordered some M8 stainless rivnuts and pressed those in. Stainless rivnuts are a LOT harder to fit than aluminium ones. Might have bent the arms on my tool using box section to get more leverage.

End result is that the car has working steering for the first time since I bought it. Feels like progress!

Also dug the out the modified handbrake I made 3 and a half years ago. It was rattling around in a drawer in one of my tool boxes. I’d shot some primer on it but never finished it so decided to put that right.

Means I can modify the tunnel to fit this (currently wrapped in bubble wrap in a box full of spares I held on to on the basis I might need some day):

Started work on prepping the donor sill, lots of under seal to get off with a knotted wire wheel first!