The main winter/spring job is getting a new hood made for the car so we can go out in dodgy weather. Over the last couple of months have measured the hood on a sister car, started to make a set of dummy hood bows to check dimensions, begun looking for an experienced coach trimmer to make the new hood and started sourcing a new set of hood bows.

Been rather busy with the car lately hence no posts lately - she is now drained down and laid up for the winter, after a few weeks driving around getting used to the car. Had a super weekend with the Steam car Club of Great Britain   at the Prescott Hill Climb autumn Classic and took her up the test hill a couple of times.

Took the car for a 15 mile run yesterday before the weather broke, east along the A4 from Marlborough and back via Ramsbury over minor roads including a 17% descent. It ran nicely - according to the Satnav max speed 35 mph (downhill on the A4), average 19mph, pressure oscillating between the low 400s and 500 all the way. Brakes fine.

Pilot light may have gone out once 3 1/4 miles out from home) still not 100% sure if it actually did but noticed fumes from under bonnet so shut down and pulled off to relight just in case. No problems for the rest of the trip. Have topped up the pilot fuel tank with Aspen 4T alkylate petrol (very pure non-additive, £18 for 5 Litres) as I can not get Hexane, so was watching pilot closely.

Checking the car over afterwards I noticed slight leaks from the fuel and water pumps, so jacked the car up in the garage and ticked it over slowly at 200-100 psi (with the burner off)  to check things out and tighten the glands  little by little until drips stopped.

Of course made a few mistakes........2 or so miles out  from home noticed a slight hiss and found I had not tightly closed the drip valve. When relighting the pilot did not follow my check list and forgot to open the pilot valve on the dash, which caused about 5-10 minutes of head scratching,

Two successful test runs so far,including venturing into traffic for a trip to the garage to take on half a tank of fuel (50/50 Petrol Diesel mix - to the consternation of other motorists and garage staff). Next hurdle is refilling the pilot burner fuel tank - preferred fuel is hexane (very clean burning and low boiling point), only 1/2 a gallon left now.  Canl't get Hexane round here at an affordable price, so have to try Aspen 4 Akalyte petrol instead (very pure, no additives which clog burners)

Spent the last day checking over the car and preparing it for the first steaming at home - weather forecast looks good this afternoon, so after lunch will push the car our of her garage and fire up....

Justin Goold of J R Goold Vintage Steam Restoration  has just emailed that the car is finished and ready for collection, will go over & pick it up tomorrow afternoon.

Boiler certificates arrived today, all in order.