Back in the UK and sufficiently recovered from my jet lag, I joined Nick to lavish some more attention on Squiffy, and in particular on her roof. With her shiney new roof struts installed the problem was no longer how to lift the roof up, but how to keep it down!
In her past life, Squiffy probably had two roof clamps but one had long since fallen off and the one remaining clamp was in a rather sorry state.
Removing the old clamp and catches revealed a rather unsavoury mix of old paint and rust, so a quick lick of Hammerite paint was applied to the area to help protect the underlying metal.
Time then to fix the brand new clamps and catches that we took delivery of back in January and time to play with a new toy in the London2Sydney toolbox: the rivet gun!
This neat tool made a simple job of attaching the new clamps and catches, even if between us we didn’t make a simple job of putting them on in quite the right place at first…
However, two smart new padlockable clamps was a much more satisfying end result than one disintegrating old one, so we felt that our cup of tea at the end of the day was well deserved.
New front clamp… 
…and new rear clamp
Dear Nick,
Given you appear to be too busy to write to your loyal, Bedford mates in Latin America and tell them when you’ll be leaving perhaps you could put it on the website. Does early July mean before or after the 7th?
Will the journey be made by just the three of you (you, Squiffy & Nick) or are you going to sign on more people?
James, hopefully you should be back in touch with Nick now (cheers for your email!) Our departure date is currently set for mid-July (we’re looking at somewhere around the 15th), I’ll update the route page.
And yup, Catherine, it’s going to be just the three of us journeying to Sydney, although we’re going to be joined by a few friends for some sections of the route. If you fancy popping along for a bit, you’re more than welcome!
Andy
HAH! I’ve just got back from a 5-day camping trip. That’s my quota of “roughing-it” nights for the next five years. Now if you get lost and find yourselves in the Texas area, please don’t hesitate to call. My neighbour is a mechanic and I can dig out the teapot.