Sod's Law strikes again. Just received a long-awaited appointment from the consultant's secretary at the JR hospital for - wait for it - Saturday 18th April at 2:15 You couldn't make it up. Anyhoo, may the sun shine on Crofton Park and your A40s.

Um, I think the mileage was something like 122,000 miles when she came to me in 1966, so another 8000-odd over the next eight or nine years sounds okay. Bar has just put her finger on my numerical error - my statement regarding the early mileage should of course read "hundred thousand" rather than j...

Built in October '58, I got her in '66... so, nearly in her twenties by the mid-seventies Dave.

Well, time passes and we all get older. Gab's original doors are still in the garage but by the mid-1970s they'd rusted out along the bottom skins and it was easier to buy two better ones from a car being broken for spares than to repair the originals. Same applies to that horizontal indicator switc...

Is it still in the Club?

Who also forgot to mention the early indicator turn switch mounted centrally on the tin dashboard between the instrument light switch on the left, and the wipers' switch to its right. The switch looks identical to the other two but rather than a vertical travel it is installed at 90° and thus operat...

Identifying the early Mk1s can be problematic, Michelle. Externally the four main clues are the "Flying A" termination at the front of the chrome centre strip on the bonnet (this was discontinued in 1959 after complaints from the American importer who regarded the protrusion as "dangerous"!), the bu...

I might suggest adding a splash of Rentokill to the water next time you wash the Moggie . . . ?

. . . but on second thoughts . . . !

Not entirely sure the Moggie's woodworm will show much respect for that Austin badge!!

Looking very nice. Do check the bases of the rear light clusters have their drain hole clear - and don't forget to run the rubber tubes down to, and through the boot floor and into fresh air.