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[h=2]Brackets & Bonnets.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, January 02, 2017 14:58:07

Here we are again then folks, we made it into 2017 alive and kicking.

Some friends and family were not so lucky but that drives home the fact that we should live our lives to the max every day doing what we enjoy.

With that said I have done bugger all for the whole of the festive season on The 110 and that I did enjoy! But all good things come to an end eh.

 

Before work today I decided that I really had to sort out that issue with the bonnet sitting too high and resting on top of the Discovery Radiator and oil cooler housing.

 

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First things first I had to drain the coolant out from the radiator, luckily i had only put in just enough anti freeze to keep the whole thing from freezing so no great expensive loss there. Once all of that had finished dripping its way out I disconnected all of the pipework forgetting that the oil cooler pipes would have oil in them...that was messy.

 

A few minutes cleaning up an oil spill later and I lifted out the whole rad/cooler set up popping it into the garage then covering it up with a plywood board. Yes I am paranoid about putting a hole into another radiator!! It is an expensive mistake not to be made twice.

Obviously I had already measured the gap between the wing and bonnet so it was just a quick mark up on the existing bottom brackets before cutting through them then cleaning them back to bare metal ready for welding up.

 

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A few minor adjustments with a lump hammer saw the newly trimmed brackets dropped into place with all of the body panels then offered up and hurrah! the bonnet now closes like it is supposed to.

I dug the welder out which didn't want to play with the feed coughing and spluttering away giving me just enough cooperation to get the brackets welded permanently into place.

 

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I have left all of the radiator bits off for now as I want to position the header tank properly and get those oil pipes made up and fitted into place, this will make access just a little easier.

When I stand back though I cannot help but think The 110 is starting to look like it wants taking apart again...

 

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***A quick follow up note. At the beginning of this post I mentioned doing what you like every day and a memory came to me yesterday as I ran through the torrential rain with my coat held on only by being hooked over my head that when we were kids we did just that, hooked our coats onto our heads whilst pretending to be superheros.

I was always Batman of course and I have to admit running through the rain yesterday made me feel like I was seven again.

And it turned me into Batman...I am the Batman.

 

nickysmith.me

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[h=2]Header Tanks Twice.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, January 05, 2017 13:51:40

It felt like I was slipping backwards, all of the hard work putting things back together seemed to be coming back off The 110 in droves. One step forward seemed to lead to four steps back.

This though it would seem is all part of the fun of Land Rover ownership.

 

After the initial run up of the engine and the modification of the radiator brackets I had to actually mount the Header Tank in a proper permanent position. Now this should be a straight forward affair really but the 300tdi header tank I had bought fouled the suspension cone turret. "Not to worry" I thought to myself "I am a resourceful fellow, I shall make a bracket up"

So that is exactly what I did. I dug out some metal and made up a bracket. This fitted easily and before I knew it I had the header tank fixed into place.

 

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A little later I got talking to a friend about the turbo issues that were going on when, after I had sent a picture of the days work, he pointed out that the header tank was probably far too low to work properly.

Hmm...back to the drawing board then. I set to seeing what could be done I mean I am not that daft to only come up with one solution to a problem so I sat back with a brew and pondered the issue.

A new bracket then but I only had the metal that was already used but not to stress a bit of bending here in the vice and there with a hammer along with some gentle persuasion soon saw it all remoulded for a higher mounting.

 

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Now that header will sit above the radiator and the coolant can now circulate around nicely.

As the tools were out I quickly popped the rad and front panel back into place so The 110 will finally once again start to look like a Land Rover.

 

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One thing I am not looking forward to doing is wiring those lights back up.

I hate Land Rover wiring...

 

nickysmith.me

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  • 2 weeks later...

[h=2]Smoke & Bangs.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Mon, January 16, 2017 15:25:02

You can actually get past saturation point you know. I did not think that that would be possible but it turns out that it is!

 

But before anymore of that let us head back to the beginning. Our last instalment showed that the turbo was knackered so I had to try and figure out how on earth I was going to afford a new one. Well a kind friend gifted me a 300tdi turbo so all I had to do was do a few modifications and Bob's your Uncle. Sod's law being what it is a few days later another friend called telling me he had a 200tdi turbo that could be mine for a very reasonable price. Skint as I am this month I could not refuse this as it would safe a great deal of messing around so I bought it.

 

Yesterday was the day to get the old replaced with the new and all went really well for a while.

The old unit came off nice and easily leaving just the old gasket to remove and the face there to clean up. A nice new exhaust manifold gasket was then popped into place.

 

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My luck held as I installed the replacement turbo then less the ninety minutes after starting the hole shebang was all back together.

 

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Happy Days!! I thought to myself as I was putting the tools away. All I had to do now was start it up, admire the not blue exhaust smoke and enjoy the whistling sound of the new turbo as it spun in.

I connected the battery and turned the key. The engine coughed quickly into life and I reversed it up to the top of the driveway to stop the exhaust fumes building up under the car port gassing anyone unfortunate enough to enter.

It was still a bit smokey but not too bad at the moment. I figured it would be burning off the oil that had got into the exhaust system so not to worry.

As it got warmer the smoke did not subside. If I gave the engine some rev's it got a great deal worse...and blue.

 

My heart sank. Everything I seem to do on this motor leads to more issues. It does not seem to make any of it any better. Still not to panic, I let it run up to temperature before driving it back to it's semi permanent spot under the car port.

After a bit of online chatting with friends and folks on forums I decided to remove the exhaust to make sure that it was not full of oil....it was not.

I then ran the engine again to make sure the turbo I fitted was in good working order with no major oil leaks...it was fine, there was still blue smoke.

The bloody power steering box wasn't happy though.

It took this opportunity to dump every last drop of fluid it had in the power steering system all over my driveway as I backed the 110 up it...I could have cried.

 

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A bottle of Fairy liquid later saw the driveway usable once more while I popped a drip tray under the steering box to catch the remnants of what was held in the system.

 

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I left the engine a few hours to cool then checked the valve clearances. These are all good and still the engine smokes badly in blue. There is no evidence of the head gasket being the culprit but that of course doesn't mean that it is not.

A friend is popping over later in the week for a quick nose at it and another has hinted it could be the valve oil seals.

 

A diagnosis will be gladly welcomed but if I am honest here I am now sick to death of it. Today has cost another wad of cash I do not have and before anything else there is the added cost of a power steering box along with an alternator. I don't think I mentioned the alternator is shot as well. No output at all there...

 

Unless it is going to be a cheap fix on the smokey side of things The 110 is getting parked up. Mothballed. I may even be tempted to sell the damned thing but I will give myself a few weeks before making any sort of rash decision there.

All I wanted was a Land Rover to do some Overlanding in, a bit of camping in nice places. I should have gone with my first idea of doing this with a more modern Discovery and I have to admit that this idea is once again becoming more and more tempting.

Lets see what Thursday brings but I expect to park it up for a while in anycase because once you get to this verge of hatred point it is best to just walk away.

My other hobbies are calling and I have a week off so from tomorrow morning I will be focusing on those a little more so as to get out and about.

Not a great ending to this post folks and I am sorry for that but I could not be any more fed up with this without taking a large hammer to it....

 

nickysmith.me

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Blue smoke can be caused by a couple of things (not just turbo). The most common one is the valve stem seals let oil pass down to the combustion chamber.

 

Another could be rings of course allowing oil to pass

 

As much as it would be a pain you could try running the engine sans turbo and I it still emits blue smoke you know its one of the above. Valve stem seals are pennies and easy to fit but is a head off job

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Hmm....... Does sound annoying, so see what you feel like. But you have done a lot of work and started to turn it into your own runner. Put to one side and kick it now and then. Then look at it again with the advice and suggestions and you'll get it sorted. And all vehicles cost money so it is just how long to live with it. Stay cool :-)

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Thanks for the kind words folks I do appreciate them! Bloomin cars we do seem ti have a love hate relationship with them!

 

[h=2]Sulk Over.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Thu, January 19, 2017 10:19:29

Yes, yes I know my last post had me throwing a tantrum. You saw me throwing all of my toys out of the pram. I spat my dummy out as far as it could go and I was stamping my feet shouting "It's my toy and I don't wanna play anymore"

But the sulk is now over.

I have stood still wondering where in the hell I went wrong in the Land Rover life when a friend gave me a bit of a talking to.

After reading my last post he simply messaged "Ring me".

I didn't want to because I kinda knew he was going to have some cunning solution to what was going on engine smoke wise and it turned out that he did. That and I am an "Arfur Job" fool.

 

The first question was "Have you plumbed it all in correctly?" which with a roll of my eyes I answered "Of course I have, I am not that stupid."

"But have you plumbed it ALL in?" he asked.

"Bugger" I thought to myself "Here we go I am going to feel stupid in a minute" was the closely following thought.

"Well not all of it. I mean I have not piped up the turbo to the intercooler yet" I replied.

"That will probably make it smoke a bit" he told me in a calm manner "Not a great deal but enough from unburnt fuel etc. It isnt the be all and end all but it would probably help. It's been stood for years and then your knackered turbo will have dumped oil around in places so give that a go because the engine will really need a good run out as well. Oh and while you are at it stick some fuel cleaner through it and an engine flush probably wouldn't do any harm either. Nick stop panicking and start plodding through the bits I've said."

 

So I did. I ordered the bits I needed to make up the bottom intercooler feed and popped the fuel cleaner in. The postman brought me the parts yesterday morning so I set to seeing if my friend was right....again.

 

He was.

 

After making it all up and fitting the turbo out I fired up the engine and there still some smoke but nothing like what had been before...it was at this point I started to feel a bit stupid along with daring to feel a little bit hopeful.

I let the engine run through for about for about half an hour systematically revving up and holding them to get the heat all of the way through the solid metal lump. I wanted to get the coolant nice and hot as well.

 

As it ran and revved getting up to and holding its temperature the smoke more or less disappeared. I could not believe it! After all of that feeling a bit sick with disappointment thinking the whole thing would be better burning here I was looking at a much improved picture. Yes the power steering box was still shot but that is a doddle of a job compared to pulling the engine apart. An expensive job but an easier one non the less.

So thank you my friend, you know who you are, you have yet again advised me well and there a couple of beers with your name on when we next meet up again!

 

Happy as I am that it is all heading back in the right direction I am changing tack and walking away from the mechanical side for a little while. What I am going to do is put the bugger back together wiring up the lights then prepping the bodywork for painting. I want to get the old boy looking like I want him to. It's looked like scrap since it turned up all of that time ago so I am heading down the "Make it look nice" route. This will show me what I am working towards and I do have this nice car port that I can put it under and seal off to do the job.

 

My biggest problem now is I had decided months ago what colours I wanted to paint it but know I am not quite so sure!

Best to start with the primer then. The rest can sort itself out from there...

 

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nickysmith.me

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[h=2]Not Spending Money.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, January 29, 2017 15:02:22

You have probably noticed that there has been very little on the Land Rover front lately.

This is for two reasons.

The first is quite frankly I needed a bit of a break away from the damned thing. It was starting to grate, as most of you know, on my nerves and the constant working every spare minute was leaving me feeling exhausted as well as fed up with the whole process.

The second reason is that I also have a house that I am doing up and after all of the dedication to The 110 the house was feeling a little neglected.

 

This years plan for the house after last years running start on it was to get the conservatory finished. That is as much as I wanted to put upon myself house work wise and this seems like a good plan.

Firstly I had to build up the inner wall. It has been well over ten years since I last built any sort of wall and this took me two days along with a raging back ache!

Ten years ago it would have been a day job but even at the spring chicken age of forty three I have noticed I am slowing down in certain areas. Heavy block lifting and wall building being one of them.

Patience it seems is a virtue though and the wall is straight and true meaning that I have not lost my knack, only my speed.

 

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That was a couple of weeks ago so this weekend involved deciding on how we wanted the conservatory to look, then going to buy some masonry paint, then some poor smuck had to paint the first coat onto the exposed brick wall...yep that would be me.

 

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The before and after effects are pretty good even if I do say so myself! We will be going with an "Industrial" type look on the painted brick wall with old lights and conduit piping for the electrics.

 

With this lot going on I had declared to my ever suffering Wife that I would "Not be spending any money on The 110 this month" because we have just been paid.

 

That lasted about an hour. I ordered the primer and paints needed to make the Landy look good but "That's it. Nothing else for it this month" were the next words out of my mouth.

In all fairness to me I lasted about seven hours before a set of chequer plate wing tops and bonnet top came up on the internet at a price I could not refuse...

 

That's it though I am skint. I am not buying anything else for it this month. I have given my debit card to Wifey and put parental access controls onto the sale pages and websites that suck away my cash.

Just nobody tell me they have a cheap 200tdi alternator for sale and I should be alright...

 

nickysmith.me

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  • 3 weeks later...

[h=2]Rub Back & First Coat.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Tue, February 14, 2017 16:10:13

I shall open with an apology. I have been rather quiet of late but with good reason. That being family. Mine have kept me busy of late so with work added into the mix I have been rather short on hours.

Seeing as I had a week owed holiday wise I have taken the last couple of days to begin the rub down of the bodywork along with adding the first thin coat of primer.

 

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I have to say it is nice to see it nearly all the same colour for a change..

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[h=2]Snoring & Slap On.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Fri, February 17, 2017 06:14:44

My Wife has a problem with snoring. Sounds of deep rumbling along with what I can only describe as several near death experiences due to what seems like strangled suffocation lead to a Doctors appointment being made before Divorce proceedings could begin in earnest.

Not to worry the Doctor says it is probably something simple and that I should begin with losing a few pounds in weight and trying one of those snoring aid things.

After standing at one of the pharmacy aisles at Tescos bewildered for about ten minutes looking a shelves full of all manner of things that promised to give me good nights sleep I just picked up one that was in the middle of the price range and headed home.

 

So a couple of nights back just before bed I found myself stood in front of Wifeys dressing mirror in the bedroom with a packet nose strips in my hand wondering just how stupid I was going to look in a couple of minutes time. After a sigh to myself I spent a few moments (read that as about six minutes) trying to figure out how to take the sticky backing off of the damned thing before squinting into the mirror without my specs on affixing it across my nose attempting my best Adam Ant impression.

 

I am one hell of a skeptic when it comes to these sort of aid things but to my complete amazement this little plastic strip opened up my nostrils making breathing easier than it has been in years! To cut a long story short I have had the best two nights sleep in what seems like years and so it would seem has Wifey. She has even gone to the extent of putting away the hammer and knives that seemed to have ominously made their way to her bedside table. This bloody chest infection that pitches up each time I have a week off is still going strong though. I will have to pop back to Tescos and see what magic isle they have for that...

 

To The 110 then. To be honest it has just been a pottering around it sort of week in between coughing a lung up and feeling rather sorry for myself. The second primer coat went on easily giving a nice sound bed for the top coats.

 

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WHilst that coat was drying I skipped off to the parts shed to dig out the wing chequer plate. I have decided not to use the bonnet chequer plate as the wheel will be mounted on there anyway so it seems like alot of work for something you won't really see. If anyone is interested in it before it gets put up tonight for sale give me a shout.

The wing plates were offered up just to make me smile while pretending the truck was finished.

 

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Out came the etch primer because these bad boys were going to be black in the end.

 

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Then I walked away letting it all dry properly. After a sleep or two I came back suitably dosed up on cold relief pills to break out the black paint. Firstly a nice coat went onto the chequer plate.

This was quickly followed by a good coat on both the roof and bonnet. I will aim to get the second coat on today along with the first coat on the main body. If I can stop coughing long enough that is!

 

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http://www.nickysmith.me

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:-D:-D Indeed it is John! Here's the next instalment...

 

[h=2]Great Body in a First Coat.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sat, February 18, 2017 10:31:07

Bear with me today I have a bit of a thick head. That "One for the road" last night may well have tipped me over the edge. Still, while I sit here at the kitchen table with my hangover cure sausages are grilling nicely I thought it best to tell you all of yesterdays progress.

 

The roof is now black along with the bonnet and the chequer plate. But what colour to do the main body of The 110 I hear you ask? Well I think you are asking, if not those voices in my head are back.

After hours of internet searching looking at pictures, I decided I best start looking at Land Rovers before the Wife caught me at it. These showed me motors in all colours so deciding what I wanted was a tough choice.

I ended with Black (obviously you already know that) and.........

Green.

 

Not overly imaginative but I decided upon the semi gloss finish and I think it has come up quite nicely for a first coat.

 

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The front bumper was looking more than a little drab so I etch primed it so that too can be painted black. I do seem to have more than enough paint!

 

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The second coat should bring it all together nicely! I have also added a couple of extra coats to the bonnet and the roof may well want a couple more too yet. The jury is still out on that one as I need to reverse The 110 out from under the car port into the proper light to have a good look.

 

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[h=2]Bad Head & Birthday Parties.[/h]The 110Posted by Nicky Smith Sun, February 19, 2017 08:47:34

I don't booze. No, honestly I don't! The days of that nonsense are far behind me and as I sit here at my kitchen table this morning listening to Radio 2 whilst tenderly nursing a cup of tea I remember why.

I cant take it. Really, I am a big Jess who can no longer take his beer and I am ok with that. Two days of evening drinking and my voice has dropped two octaves. My stomach feels about three times it's normal size and sweet Jesus the smell that is escaping from my backside could solve all of the issues in the middle east in a matter of minutes. Even the dog has abandoned me high tailing it for lower ground.

But it was worth it. It was a good friends surprise 50th Birthday party last night and it's his fault that I feel so bloated...

 

The 110 was first coat deep when I went outside early yesterday morning to put the second coat on. The second coat is always easier than the first and the finish was looking really good.

 

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So there I was covered in as much paint as the car drinking a brew whilst the headache of the night before was fading when Wifey came and got me to tell me that I had to somehow get my friend Gromit out of the house for a couple of hours because they had to head over to the hall where is party was and set up.

Talk about drop it on me! I was filthy (luckily quite a normal state of affairs) covered in paint and skint to boot. How was I to get my mate out of the house for that long at five minutes notice?

 

As I wandered along the three doors away to his house with my tea still in my hand I came up with a cunning plan. Well it was cunning in the fact it would get him out but not so cunning that it was going to cost me £50 I didn't have but if I had to spend it I may as well get something I needed.

With a grin when I saw him I asked him "Can I borrow you and your Discovery to collect some chunky window sills for the conservatory please chap?"

With a returning grin he piped back with "Yea why not"

 

Then after asking his advice on where to go I lead him towards the furthest away from where we were point and off we set.

Well as soon as we were gone so were the women of the two households to get things sorted for the evening.

My first problem was that there was no traffic at all. Because of this we were at the wood yard in fifteen minutes. Of course we found what I needed in another 3 minutes and had the car loaded within ten minutes of getting there. Right then I need a back up plan here...

"Gromit do you mind if we pop into Alfreton? I need to speak to the folks in the leisure centre about my membership"

He looked at me a bit oddly but said "Alright then Nick."

 

Bear in mind Alfreton was about fifteen miles from where we currently were so a bit of an ask really but in good spirits off we set.

Again no traffic so we were soon at the leisure centre and thankfully Gromit decided to wait in his Disco while I popped in for two minutes.

Indeed it really only took two minutes to do what I needed to do so what the hell could I do know? I decided that having a coffee while I thought about it was a good idea!

 

I dragged that out for ten minutes then as I was leaving I sent a text to Wifey giving them all a fifteen minute warning. The reply was almost instant saying

"No! drag it out"

Seriously!! I thought to myself. my friend is already looking at me like I am taking the michael here. ONly one more option on the way home...

 

"Fancy a KFC mate?" I asked

"Not really Nick but we can stop for one if you want"

 

I didn't want...no I really didn't. About five minutes before this facade had started I had eaten the biggest sausage cob you have ever seen so the thought of a greasy KFC was more than a little unappealing.

 

"Yes please chap, I am starving" I replied.

 

Then there I was looking at the menu wondering what I could have that meant I did not have to eat a great deal but it had to be big enough to look like lunch.

 

I managed to drag that force fed meal out for another twenty five minutes whilst making small talk. By now I was convinced he was suspecting something but a quick trip to the toilet so I could send the text message that we were coming home now and we were on our way home.

 

We beat the families back. Not to worry they had sent me a message stating they had gone shopping for shoes so my friend and I had a brew whilst comparing notes on how to cut and fix the newly acquired window sills into the conservatory.

Ten minutes passed and the rest of the tribe returned with grins all around and slight nods confirming all was ready for the off in the evening.

While I had Gromit there we popped the bonnet back onto The 110 and that in place, the front bumper painted black and the chequer plate resting on the wings the old boy looks pretty damned good to me!!

 

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By now the time had really cracked on so operation "Get ready, get out and get to the party before your mate sees you" began in earnest.

We got washed and changed. I had to use a pressure washer to remove the paint off of me. Then we crept out into the darkness of our driveway hopped in the car and sped off to the party hall.

My youngest was snaptwatting (I think thats what she called it) Gromits eldest and it turned out he was still sat on his sofa in his pants and t-shirt not relishing the idea he had to go out to a party that evening.

A little persuasion (read that as bullying) from his three daughters and wife soon saw our friend washed and dressed and on his way.

 

He had no idea the party was for him and the grin on his face as he entered the hall said it all! A conversation a little later on with him had him confirming he wondered why I was being a bit of a dick asking to be run around to all these odd places that morning. He said he had just put it down to being out and about...

 

What a day it had been! The 110 was looking the mutts nutts now and really inspired me to plough on and get it finished. I can see once again what I am working towards and this was sorely needed.

But most important of all a genuinely great friend had the surprise of his life with family and friends from all over the country coming to see him...something he has never had before and if anyone I know deserved a surprise like that, well it is him!

 

Happy 50th Birthday Gromit smiley_wink.gif

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