From this to this - Part 19

After weeks of frustration with the engine still missing, I stumbled across the fact that when the plug leads were loosely connected, the car ran well. Then, it had to be the plug leads but these were a new set. I bought one new lead & it seemed to run a bit better, so I thought about changing the new spark plugs. I put three of the old ones in & it fired up & ran really well. But the spark plugs were also new! I then went & bought a new set of NGKs, put them in & the car ran really well. I couldn’t believe that we had wasted so much time over a set of plugs. Anyway, what a relief & the car sounded really good & I was at the stage of really wanting to test it on the road.
LESSON 30: Don’t assume that new parts always work, especially spark plugs. My stubborn belief that it could not possibly be the plugs costs me hours & hours of time.

The next day, 1 December, I spent refinishing the engine bay, respraying a few sections & giving it another tidy up, especially after some of the sanding down water marks were still in various corners. It was starting to look quite respectable.
LESSON 31: Try to do all the cleaning & repainting of the engine bay AFTER the exterior of the car has been completed otherwise bits & pieces from the sanding & washing down contaminate your previous good work & then it has to be redone. Due to when my car could be resprayed & the fact that I wanted to be able to move it about, I choose to do it in reverse.