[Mick O'Malley]

Not a huge deal of progress since my last build focused post. I'd noticed when studying an exploded diagram of the 28/36 DCD that some tiny parts (whose function is a mystery) were missing. I ordered these from my old friends Pierce Manifolds in California. When they arrived there was a 93p customs charge and an £8 handling fee - almost as much as the parts cost. I fitted them, mounted the carb., connected the throttle cable and realised that I'd not made provision for the cockpit end of the choke cable. Pondering its location made me realise just how ugly my high-level dash was. After more head scratching I decided to re-mount it at its original level - as if I didn't have enough to do!

I'd originally raised it as I'd neglected to factor in the steering column's position, which clashed with the 100mm Spitfire tacho. After some careful measuring I hit on replacing it with an 80mm one. As ever, cardboard assisted design resulted in this masterpiece .



It's now been transferred to ally sheet and is awaiting the Smiths tacho. I won on Ebay. This cost me about half the price of a new one, which would have cost about £160.

In the meantime I've made up the Bundy pipes which fit on the Spitfire 1500 backplates. I only realised these were needed when I offered up the flexi hoses I'd bought, which were too short, bought the correct ones in stainless, and found their outboard ends weren't of the screw into the cylinder style. Study of exploded diagrams put me right - every day is a day at school!

The only other result I've achieved was getting a very local bloke to weld the extension into my inner steering column, which is now fitted.

Regards, Mick