Probably not what you want to see but I've always found if you make a box for things, you don't manage to fit everything in or don't manage to fill it fully. Like you, I've got a wheel well full of gas tank so the spare sits in the boot, hollow side up so it can be filled with a blanket, rolls of tape, jump leads, gasket goo, spare bulbs, spare CPS, length of climbing rope, steel binding wire, electrical wire, tyre pump, magnetic amber beacon, weatherproof jacket, big torch and other assorted bits (including a spare starter motor and alternator when I do my cross Europe runs). Down the side of it is 4 litre container of oil, bottle of ATF, 10 litres of water, squirty bottle full of washing up liquid and water, and a couple of small ratchet straps. All held in place by a 3 tonne trolley jack with small magnetic LED torch stuck to it.

On the left side there's toolbox, fire extinguisher, wheelbrace and an additional power socket run from the connector intended for the extra power socket if you have dual trailer electrics.

Then in the space that once had the OE jack and wheelbrace, there's warning triangle, tow rope, set of Schrader valve adapters for the EAS, set of ignition coils and assorted lengths of coolant hose in different sizes with Jubilee clips.

Then under the rear seat there's an old Panasonic Toughbook laptop with RAVE, EASUnlock and LPG software loaded on it and in the front seat back pockets the Nanocom, cable for EASUnlock, and a bag of spare fuses. Under the from passenger seat there's a 300W inverter that can be plugged into an additional power socket under the back of the centre console.

As my car never had the CD changer, sub or sat nav taking up boot space, I've got the full width of the boot available. Plod had an axillary battery on the RHS (cables to the front are still there) where I now keep my bottles of liquids and the toolbox fits nicely in the space where the sub would be if I had one. Toolbox contains just about everything I need about the only things that stay in the garage rather than travelling with me everywhere are specialist stuff like the big torque wrench, axle stands and angle grinder. In fact, if the torque wrench was in the car I'd have everything I needed to change head gaskets at the side of the road if I needed to.

I appreciate not everyone carries their entire workshop around with them all the time but I'd far rather be in the position to be able to fix something at the side of the road when I'm 2,000 miles away from home. My view is there's no point in having something you might need only for it to have been left behind.

You are likely to have the door amps which you will see with the door panel off (fag packet sized box mounted lower down the door next to the bass speaker). That is supplied with power from the door outstations (the other box mounted at the top of the door). Door outstations get their power from Fuse 9 in the BeCM fuse panel. This feed doesn't go through the connector behind the kick panel but through one higher up at the end of the rubber tube between door and A post, however, as you say, a problem there would only affect one side not both.

Bollox, it's dodgy microswitches. People that know nothing will blame the BeCM for everything from the neighbour's cat dying onwards. Marty does refurbed latches http://p38webshop.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=60 which are a lot cheaper than brand new.

There's 3 microswitches as a block but with locating pins that don't match the normal microswitch mounting holes so not easy to replace. Marty has sussed it and does refurbed latches with new Cherry microswitches. I've done it once but it's a real PITA.

The first time I had a failing microswitch it would only do it when it was hot weather. Probably something to do with thermal expansion and there's been quite a bit of heat about over the last couple of days.

Here

Ahh, you got here.

Find a tablet that will fit in the space, you can then run Google Maps or Waze by tethering it to your phone.

Nice one, I was expecting it to go for much more than that. Once you get it you'll need to register it with BBS so you can get updates.

Once the inlet manifold is off, it's only a pair of 4 cylinder pushrod engines, may as well be a couple of Ford Anglia engines. People seem to think they are complicated but they're dead simple really. As long as the valley gasket arrives tomorrow, I'll be out in it by the evening. I've got to put 895 miles on it before the end of the month when it goes in for MoT. It's currently showing 399,105 and I want it to begin with a 4 by MoT time.

Tried tracking down an oil leak. It's always been a bit oily underneath but just recently it has got worse to the point where it was dropping oil on the floor. At £50 for 4 litres I don't want to be throwing it around the place too much and having to keep topping it up. Anyway, it's got the MoT due at the end of this month and then has around 6,000 miles to do in September so I'd like it to be as good as I can get it. Most of the oil seemed to be dripping off the starter motor and the back of the engine so I wiped it off yesterday and took it for a short run. Back home and there's oil dribbling down the starter motor and on the back of the engine and it seemed to be coming from higher up and worse on the RH side.. Figured it must be the rocker cover gaskets so, as I had a brand new pair in the garage, decided to change them. Did that yesterday and the back of the heads were a bit oily, so thought that maybe I had found the leak, wiped the oil off and went for another short run. Still the same. Wiped it off this morning, in the vain hope that maybe it was residual oil that was still dripping down and went to pick up my ramps. Got back, still oil dripping off the starter and back of the engine.

Got the front end up on ramps, suspension on high and got underneath with the pressure washer and Mr Screwfix's industrial grade degreaser. Having got the underside cleaner than the outside (it needs another wash), took the cover off the bottom of the flywheel so I could see if it was coming from the rear main seal and started the engine while laying under it. Watched carefully thinking that maybe it was coming from the oil pressure switch or somewhere at the front and the fan was blowing it back. Nope, after running for about 5 minutes a little dribble of oil appeared running down the starter motor between the motor itself and starter solenoid but nothing visible further forward.

OK, so it isn't coming from the rocker cover gaskets so that only leaves the valley gasket seals. Found a mirror so I could get a look down the back and it was dry. So off with the starter and see if I could see where it was coming from.

And the verdict is......

It was leaking from the bloody head gasket! A dribble of oil could clearly be seen running down the side of the block and had been dripping onto the starter.

It's done over 110k miles since V8 Developments rebuilt the engine for me but I put the heads on hence me suspecting rocker covers or valley gasket as they were done by me not them. But so were the head gaskets......

Fortunately I had a pair of brand new Elring gaskets in the garage so I've change both (because they were both put on at the same time and by the same bloke, me) and hopefully, if Rimmers next day delivery if ordered before 3pm works, I'll have a valley gasket here tomorrow so I can get it all back together. Either that or I pinch Dina's SLK on Friday as I need to be somewhere.....

I would expect whoever is putting the new sleeves (top hats?) in would pull the old ones and pressure test it anyway. Coolant leaks could well be core plugs but again, I would expect whoever does the engine work to replace those too. Degrease, pull the heads and ancillaries off and it should be ready to go.

Have you seen the price of that voltage sensing relay????? https://www.brit-car.co.uk/product.php/89705/4590/voltage_sensitive_switch____defender___discovery___range_rover_classic

I'd go for one of these instead https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/925/category/149, may be overkill at 140A but will do the same job (unless you can find a lower current version at sensible money).

But it's a Vogue, it should waft along silently.......

That means it had a reserve but it's now been met. The last one I saw on eBay went for more than buying new.

No extra material, you get plenty with the Martrim kit. Anyway, if you don't have a sunroof then you need that bit to fill in the hole that you don't have. If you bow the sunshade it pops out, just don't lose the runners it slides in.

That's bloody cheap. Place I used to use would charge £80 a panel, but he's closed down now.....

Out of interest, what have they quoted you for the paint job?

Coming along nicely and I'm still amazed at how rusty everything looks. Not surprised everything is putting up a bit of a fight. That bottom ball joint had a rubber boot on it once but I suppose not having one means it can't fail the MoT for it being split.

I've edited your post as only the first picture was showing. When you'd pasted the Imgur links into the little box, you hadn't cleared the https:// that is in the box already so it was trying to link to https://https://etc. The https:// that is already in the box is normally highlighted so just clicking on it and pasting the new link should clear it.

As for ABS sensors, I've usually used genuine Wabco ones from a breaker. They very rarely fail unless physically damaged so will work. Easy enough to put a multimeter on them and check the resistance (about 1.2kOhms if I remember right).

Not today but Thursday evening and Friday morning. Changed the steering box on the ex-plod so another bit that is no longer original. About 3 years ago I bought a Eurospares lower steering shaft due to a bit of play at straight ahead. Then adjusted the steering box and found that I didn't actually need it so it sat on the shelf waiting for when I did. As a lockdown something to do I fitted it but had a hell of a job getting the original one off and resorted to using a tapered ball joint splitter between the steering box and the bottom UJ. Rather than the steering being more precise than before, and it's always been more precise than the Ascot and others I've driven, it seemed worse. Carefully checking and found a tiny amount of play in the lower UJ so ordered a replacement OE lower steering shaft. Fitted that a couple of weeks ago and it still wasn't right. Checked it again and found play in the steering box itself. Couldn't adjust it out and I suspect I'd damaged it in some way when getting the old UJ off, so it was replacement steering box time.

A phone call to Dave at East Coast 4x4 and he was in the process of stripping a 104k GEMS that had come in for breaking so I went there and picked that up. Decided to start the job Thursday evening when it was a bit cooler which also meant I should be able to finish it Friday morning before it got too hot as the weather man was forecasting 35 degrees. RAVE says to remove the inner wheelarch liner and washer reservoir but I remember Chris saying somewhere that he had done it with just removing the liner. If he can do it, so can I. Well, nearly. RAVE also doesn't mention the fact that, on a GEMS anyway, there's a steel coolant pipe that runs right over the top preventing access to the banjo bolts with a socket. So that had to be unbolted so I could move it out of the way but in my case the bolts for that were under a bracket fitted there by plod to mount the split charge relay and additional fuses for the extras they fitted. So more bits had to come off. By Thursday evening everything was disconnected and all that needed doing was to undo the 4 bolts that hold the box on and drop it out.

Nice and early (well, early for me), Friday morning saw the 4 bolts removed and the steering box was no longer attached but would it come out? Would it hell! The washer reservoir needed to move forward by about half an inch and the bracket for the brake hose and ABS sensor cable were stopping it too. Bracket was easy enough to unbolt but the reservoir put up a bit of a fight. It is held in place by two bolts and sits in a channel to support the weight. Undoing the inner bolt would be enough to allow it to move so that came out and with a bit of persuasion I was able to push it forward in the channel and get the steering box out. New one went in, bolted it up and torqued to the required grunt (don't really want a floppy steering box), centralised the box and steering column and reconnected the steering shaft. Poured fluid down both holes in the steering box (so it shouldn't need bleeding) before connecting the pipes with new copper washers and torqued the banjo bolts. Reconnected the drag link, bolted everything else that had been unbolted and took it out to try it. The steering is beautiful, precise and light, but although the steering column and steering box are centralised, the steering wheel is now on the piss, so the drag link needs to be adjusted. Slacken off the clamps, wire brush and Plus Gas on the threads and out with a big pair of Stilsons. Would it move? Would it hell. However, also noticed that the boot had split on the opposite end so will need changing so I just ordered a new drag link assembly and will put up with an on the piss steering wheel for a few days. Boot hadn't been split when I'd started on it so can only assume it had been put under strain and split while the drag link had been dangling while everything else was being done.

Anyway, shiny new bits will impress the MoT tester when the MoT comes up at the end of the month. Got a 4,000 mile round trip to do the first week of September and another 2,000 miler a couple of weeks later. All I need do now is put another 1,100 miles on it before the end of the month so I can take it in for MoT with an odo showing a number starting with a 4......