The galvanised sills were cleaned then painted with Hammerite Special Metals Primer on the inside before welding. This was because some parts were going to be hard to access after the sills were fitted. The primer was not "weld through" so it had subsequently to be cleaned off in places. Grinding off the old sills, welding and fabricating was a 30 hour job. With the car chassis complete, I primed the rest of the sills then coated them with Black Smoothrite.

A sill-y picture

Working under the car, I used the same paint to cover any bare metal or weld. Ultimately, though, I intend to do as much of the chassis as possible using a zinc-rich primer. Note that the car can only be put up on ramps with the nose removed!

I used copious amounts of Waxoyl on the chassis. I did not realise that the outrigger tubes were open at the inboard ends until I got under the SS1. This was an ideal opportunity to shoot wax into them.

Note the anti-rust primer on the A and B posts. This was where Allan welded on a bracing bar when he took the sills off. I drilled 2 6mm holes in the B-post and injected wax into them. A-posts are easier to access for rust proofing by removing the trim panels in the footwells.

New galvanised sill in place. It looks like I've smeared parts of the car with ointment. It is, of course, anti-rust primer. This was used as a precaution on all points where grinding had taken place or where surface rust had been evident.

Refitting panels was not as hard as I had anticipated, with a couple of exceptions that I will detail later. Having said that, I did not attempt to improve upon Reliant's amusing concept of fit. Perhaps if I see another SS1 close up (something I've only seen in the distant past) I'll realise that I could do better. I left all Torx bolts loose until I had everything lined and whilst this generally helped I had specific difficulty with the join between the rear wing, rear valance and frame bracket. In the end I used a long, thin bolt. The boot lid was awkward too but only because I was working on my own and had to balance it on my head. Problems with the boot liner turned out to be caused by my having trapped part of the wiring loom between it and the rear chassis leg. The real ****** was the driver's door. I got it on and it shut with a heave. I then fitted the passenger door, using a jack to hold it at the right height. It shut with a satisfying "snick". This spurred me to have another go at the driver's door. After adjusting it I shut it again. All was fine until I tried to reopen it. Nothing would budge it! Eventually I had to loosen the hinge bolts and "shoogle" it as we Scots say. I also had problems with the passenger's side "pop up" headlamp catching. There is adjustment for the whole unit but I found that there is also some adjustment in the shroud position and this seemed to help.

"Scimitar SS1" and "good panel fit"- two concpts that go together like "ice-cream" and "chilli sauce". That's not quite fair. The SS1's construction led to criticism about its fit and finish when it was new, but it makes the job I've just done massively easier than it might have been.

The car's on the road now. It doesn't look any better than it did before all the dismantling, welding and refitting, but that's the nature of the SS1 and a warning for potential buyers! I would not have chosen to do this amount of work on a the car- I bought it to enjoy driving it. Having said that, it's been very satisfying to take on a project like this and come out the other end feeling that I now really know the car. And when I drove it for the first time in four months I instantly remembered why I like it so much!

Top tip: don't get your six-year old son to check your tail lights without explaining to him that the brake lights aren't supposed to flash with the indicators. (Despite what he might have seen following old Fords.)