The journey: One last look before...

Another vlog. I need to work on my technique. Apologies in advance for my finger over the lens on a couple of occasions.

The sun was shining last weekend so my friend Lee jumped in his lovely Minor 1000 and headed over to mine. Together, we wheeled Bess out of the garage to start the process of dismantling and cataloguing the many components. A bit of a scary moment - looking at a complete car, and then starting to take it apart. But it needs to be done if we're ever going to get her back on the road.

As it'll likely be the last time that she's all together for some time (possible years!) I wanted to give you a look around, to take in the extent of the decay she's suffered in the garden.

So, here it is:

We did well. Very methodically, we stripped all of the doors down. It may not look like much, but locking mechanisms, door latches, window regulators, glass and quarter lights made for a lot of parts. We laid them out on the lawn and labeled everything up as we went. Very therapeutic. There were a couple of points where it looked like the years of rust and corrosion may defeat us, but persistence and brute force, mostly from Lee, managed to free up almost all of the bolts and screws. Just one of the door handles remains. One thing is for sure, they were very well built motor cars, with really good quality engineering behind them. If only it were still the case with modern Vauhalls...

She finally looks like a restoration project, rather than a decaying old car. As a bonus, the doors look like they're in better condition that I first thought. The rear offside is the worst, but all repairable. This was about 4 and a half hours work. Next steps will be seats and dash board. You'll have to stay tuned for more updates. Now we just need some more sunny weekends.