Still on the paint

During the "pause" the father in law popped round on boxing day, so we sneaked off to the garage as I knew he would set the tappets up with his eyes closed ready for a the compression test. I wanted to check the tappets as I noticed there was a locking nut that was out right missing, so I was starting to feel the way forward was to not take anything for granted.
Well we didn't even think about doing the compression test when we found a sticking valve that wouldn't close, so no point in doing the test. Father in law looked at me and said it is probably head off and I agreed there was no point going forward, and especially when he said we could do it now. Dam right as I was not the only one going to get in to trouble for messing around hidden away in the garage, so it came off but we did call it a day at that point and went back to join the family.

The following day I had a few chores to do so no lay in and got on with making one of the garage doors wider then paused to clear the chores and rescue some kind of sense I was still part of the family. I think every time I went to the work shop I was gone for at least 6 hours, almost a good job we had lost both kids to the x box so wife could try and relax whilst suffering from a very bad cold. Although she did soldier on with Christmas prep regardless! Had to hold back moaning about everything being hard and taking ages as it was small fry to her.

So lost track of what day it is, but that's Christmas for you. When I did the big buff on the clear coat, I was not expecting it to be a five minute job, and I was not disappointed! That was another 6 hour day and it turned out I had not put enough clear coat on the rear valence so the short buff cut through to paint, but on the whole it was looking a lot better. A lack of full light, not ideal booth conditions and a dollop of not overly skilled spraying had left dust particles and a heavy orange peel to deal with. Having buffed and standing back I had to face it another complete coat of clear was needed but should be well worth it. A plan B was hatched and a few phone calls made had to tow truck delayed till the 5th and I will be there tomorrow to push the mini into a unit a few doors along so it is out of the way for work on the 2nd. The plan is that my supplier will have stock of clear coat by friday and I can spray Sat morning in better light and crossing the fingers I can keep it warm enough to dry ready for  he Sunday move back home.
God, the thought of actually putting some stuff back on it. Sounding dangerously close to some kind of noticable progress, if parts get fitted that means more space in the shed and loft as well. I would like to get excited with the prospect of all this, but .... Already wondering if the clutch is seized so strongly thinking about changing the clutch asap, the valve collets seem to be a tw£t and are a bit stuck apart from one valve. So valve removal isn't going to quickly and getting a bit twichy about the piston rings although the boar doesn't look to bad, after a quick planned hone it should be up to specs. Well it seems like that big mini spares parcel is going to have to wait a while as it doesn't look like it will be all that soon for the first fire up. Best to get it right and not cock it up by rushing it. Restoration progress looks like it will still be slow going for a while, the rockers and push rods have already had a quick clean up so still plodding forward.