Is the end of preparation in sight?

Quite a lot more of the preparation has been done now (plus putting most of the bodywork up into the rafters - I just knew I was going to put my boot through it at some point being on the floor). It is starting to get cold in the evenings and I have to admit that work has slowed down a little. I've already had a paint job that needs to be redone due to it getting to cold as it dried resulting in an interestingly crinkly finish.

All the wheel uprights have been done, new brakes and discs fitted - they will need adjusting later when on the car in a position that I can test the spin of the wheels themselves. The brake fluid will need to be bled so there is outstanding work to be done on them in any case. Brakes worry me though. Unless a spectacular mess is made of an engine, the worst that will happen is that the car will not go. That's safe (unless it is in the middle of a level crossing or similar hazardous locale). A slight mess made of the brakes however and the car will not stop. Not safe.

The transmission and gearbox is done too - not a lot needed doing on that, mostly an exterior clean and paint up. The clutch bell housing however was worryingly coated in oil on the inside, not terribly good for a clutch and almost certainly contributed to it slipping on the MX5 donor. Unfortunately there are 3 possible causes of an oily bell housing; leak from the block seeping down through the interface between the engine and the transmission, oil leaking forwards from the gearbox, and oil leaking backwards from the flywheel. Because the engine was soaked in oil it was likely to be the first of these, but just to be on the safe side I replaced the oil seal from the gearbox. It would have been immensely annoying to have to dismantle it all later to do that if it had been at fault. I just hope that in doing so I haven't actually introduced an oil leak from the gearbox, otherwise I will get to enjoy that annoyance.

The next task was to teardown the engine so I can recondition it - it ran fine on the haul down from Oxford, so apart from a clean and replacing the seals and gaskets to try and ensure that no further oil disasters occur I'm not expecting any excitement.

Taking it apart was easy enough once I'd sourced a 12 point socket for the high-torque head bolts. Interestingly, it was clear how the MX5 engine is known for being resistant to timing problems - the piston heads have depressions cast into them where the valves would fit in the event of a mis-timing. Probably wouldn't do the engine a lot of good, but it ought to prevent the valves being destroyed. Cunning!

I was thinking about starting a list of things that I'm worried about - for checking later before even trying to move the car. But I struck me that there would be a single entry; "Everything".