Lightweight progress

Hmm.. 'bout time I updated this again. This have been relatively quiet car-wise up to Christmas, with me just going out for drives in the GT6, learning how the car behaves, identifying things that need to be done and running-in the new engine. Thoroughly enjoyable so far.
Christmas found me back in East Anglia with the MkI saloon, much more space inside and more comfortable with it. In between family socials I made time to go out visiting when ever possible, with a trip down to Preston Steam services for their Christmas get-together and a chance to see again I used to help crew on. Other days saw me take trips out to near Burton-upon-Trent for The Clay Mills Pumping Station, The Great Central Railway and into Kew for the Kew Bridge Steam Museum, with all distance covered by the old saloon without any complaint from it.

By the time I had got back to Wales, the new parabolic springs for the Lightweight had been delivered and work started on fitting them. Therefore, with signs of things going onto the new chassis, it was time to resume pulling parts from the old chassis. The rear axle was removed quite quickly once the U-bolts holding it to the springs had been cut off and it was soon up on the bench ready for cleaning and checking over.
The diff pan had gone a bit thin in places due to pitting, so a bit of time was spent building it up again prior to painting.

The weekend also saw the arrival of the (new) 2.5TDi engine for the Lightweight, which had come from a low'ish mileage 200 series Discovery, which was purchased just over six months ago. This has been mated up to a freshly re-built Series 2a Landrover gearbox, complete with Bearmach (Toro) overdrive.
My next job will be to remove, strip and clean the front axle, ready for when the diffs come back with new crown wheel and pinions, then we should be ready to get the chassis rolling and perhaps get the engine and gearbox dropped in.