So good to sleep in a real bed again, this one was especially comfy too! Also great once again to be in a house with fancy things like hot running water and an electric kettle. I really appreciate this stuff these days.
After a lazy brekky, Trisse and Pete went out for most of the day so I decided to get stuck into Nessie's facelift. Luckily the house had a big double garage and huge flat concrete area for me to work (and Pete let me use his tools). It's very quick and easy to say "I replaced the front mudguard" but in actual fact it took about 7 hours of quite fiddly work and a big workout with a large ball pein hammer. Most of the screws holding the panel in came out easily but a few were hidden right up inside the panel and required taking out half the engine bay (batteries, etc) and also taking the front grille and headlights off! Even then I spent hours with my arm wedged inside a gap up to my shoulder, doing 1/20th turns with a spanner to tighten tricky screws.
By the end of the day I was quite happy with my work. Managed to panelbeat the side step, inner mudguard and the little dent in the replacement AND got it all back together looking straight and original. And all for a fraction of the panelbeaters quote! Would have been nice to chill out all day but way more important to get such a major issue sorted (especially when we want to sell the car in a few weeks). We had a barbie in the evening and relaxed then, Pete cooked up a storm and we all had a few drinks and great time catching up.
