N19

Slow progress. Reattaching the bonnet is supposed to be a 2 man job, and if the car weren't going for paint soon, I'd definitely have got a second pair of hands doing it!

It's not perfectly aligned by any stretch of the imagination, but as it'll likely have to come off to be sprayed, I'll sort that out further down the line.

With the engine out the car sits nice and noticeably higher at the front!
Meanwhile the wiring loom, bauden cables and so on that go under the bonnet have been wrapped up, hopefully to avoid any damage. Always a little wary with 44 year old wiring, I did worry if it'd cause any issues, but I suppose it's worse if it just floats around under there and invariably gets snagged or whatnot when being moved.

 
Mondeo airlock seems better - did a reasonable bit of driving today and temp gauge sitting reasonably with no wild variation, although the heater was on and off.

Right, I've calmed down a bit now.
Let's get one thing straight, I was not expecting a minter. I saw the off colour front nearside door in the photos and the seller advised that the paint is not perfect. He wasn't lying. 
This is the situation:
I reckon that the car has been standing for a long time, badly protected by a tarp or cover. Consequently, paint has worn through to bare metal in all four corners and along the roof edges.





I also reckon that at some point in the not too distant past, the car had a cheap blow over. There is overspray on various plastics.



Then there's rust, which affects just about every panel, apart from the roof.







No doubt the blow over is concealing lashings of wob. 
The underside looks ok but I haven't had the car up in the air yet.
The rear bumper is fucked - scratched, badly painted, with a lovely peeling patina.



The front bumper is better but far from perfect.

I removed the shitty stickers and faded AA badge. For a car with such low mileage (more on that later), it's been all over the British Isles and had stickers to prove it.




Under the bonnet, things are looking a bit better. The inner wings and turrets look solid. Engine bay is filthy.

The 1.8 Pinto starts and runs ok. It's silent, no cam issues. Engine oil is clean. No idea when the cam belt was last replaced, so that's on the list. Piss easy job.

Cam cover oil leak will be easy to fix.

Bad blow in the manifold to downpipe needs fixing asap. The centre and back exhaust boxes look silver and shiny but something is blowing, badly. I'm so looking forward to lying under the Sierra and fixing a leaking exhaust. 

The boot is clean, no sign of any rust.


The interior is in good condition, however there are a few issues. The front window winders were broken, so I swapped them for the rear ones. One of the rear door ashtrays is missing. The plastic handbrake lever surround has a small chunk missing. The dash has no cracks, which is nice.  The headlining is mint. The original ICE works and sounds pretty good.





I gave the Sierra a wash. There was some localised water beading but all the paint needs a good cut and polish.

It looks better after a wash but nothing as good as it did in the seller's photos.




I gave the interior plastics a wipe over and hoovered the seats and carpets. I love the interior. So 1980s Ford. The driver's door cannot be locked / unlocked, either from the inside or by key. I suspect a seized mechanism. Car is currently parked behind tall gates, out of sight and I live in a quiet cul-de-sac, so the Sierra is safe for now. 

The car was supposed to come with enough history to back up the low mileage of 33k. The odometer is showing 31k - hmm. There was nothing in the car on delivery, I called the seller, he apologised, the documents pack is still on his side table. He will post the docs tomorrow, including the green slip, which I need to tax the car. Actually, I won't bother for now, I will SORN it until I sort out the exhaust blows and replace the cam belt. 
Is the mileage genuine? The interior is mint and the engine is silent, so maybe yes. 1980s Fords rust, so the condition of the bodywork and paint should not be a factor. Let's see what the documents reveal, although I am not holding my breath.
I paid £4k for the Sierra, which includes transport costs from Northern Ireland to my house. Not a fortune, I know. I also know that Sierra prices have gone up and this example is not a complete shed. Let's say it has potential. Would I have paid £4k for it if I had seen it in the flesh before shaking hands with the seller? No.
The plan is to get the mechanicals into decent shape, tidy up the bits that need cleaning, like the engine bay, polish the paintwork, treat the corrosion and paint over with colour matched Hammerite type paint. I am not paying £10k for a weldathon and bare metal respray. Considering how poor the paint is, I am now less concerned about keeping the Sierra outside. It won't fit in the third garage and I am not kicking out my mint W123 or E46 to make space for the Sierra, at least not a permanent basis.
More soon.
 

A slightly shoddy picture of the surprisingly cramped interior of a Saab 9-3 and more importantly of 36 envelopes just before dispatch this evening. We have a very late post collection here (7pm dontcha know).
@grogee, @dozeydustman, @juular, @adw1977, @catsinthewelder, @davidfowler2000, @castros_bro, @TrabbieRonnie, @garycox, @bobdisk, @Macscrooge, @Chuck Buckles, @Sunny Jim, @KruJoe, @AnnoyingPentium, @aldo135, @EyesWeldedShut, @Zelandeth, @rml2345, @brownnova, @rob88h, @Wibble, @captain_70s, @I_am_Diesel, @Tommyboy12, @Fat_Pirate, @N19, @Marina door handles, @Spottedlaurel, @quicksilver, @HillmanImp, @95 quid Peugeot, @Matty, @Cookiesouwest, @red5, @chaseracer
yours were all in the box above and were dispatched today (Wednesday) 2nd class post, delivery could be from any time Friday onwards. 
@RobT, @wesacosa, @vulgalour and @garycox's other calendar I will endeavour to hand deliver yours as you are all local to me or my route to work.  I'm planning on a route Friday evening unless I get screwed over by traffic
@2316cc and @hairnet's UK addressed one will go out tomorrow (Thursday).  Sorry, I ran out of lunch hour to pack these last few at work. 
@MorrisItalSLX I've sent a PM, at last!  Sorry that it's taken so long, I had to wait until the calendars were here so that I could weigh them to get a price.

I got a PCN from the Dartford charge today.
Back in October I crossed both ways, when I got home and went online to pay, it only let me pay for one crossing. Hmm, odd.
I tried a couple of days later and the trip back was available, so I paid for that too.
Only it's triggered (three months later) that the second payment was too late. I don't know what I was supposed to do - put it through as a 'future payment'? What a bloody shite system!
Anyway, the ticket is only £2.50 as it's my first "offence". I can't be bothered arguing with them, so I've sent them £2.50. By cheque. To an address in Leeds (?!).
I'm hoping that the cost of finding my details from Swansea, posting me a letter, and processing the received cheque will be greater than £2.50.

I figured that I have been filling News 24 with posts about my fleet of tat and should probably start my own thread to keep it all in one place. I'm N19 (Tom), a cynical shiter from north London (though originally of farther northern extraction).
 
So, fleet is as follows...
 
1979 Capri 1.6L
 

I've owned this for about 7 years now. It was always my ambition to own a Capri one day... and I haven't looked back! For a while, I lived in inner London (see username!) and used the tube or bus to get around most of the time - so it was my only car for the duration! It's had a fair few trips in my time (from London, to Aberdeen, Bristol, Norfolk, Brighton, and lots of places in-between), although the last year has been much quieter due to lockdown. Always garaged, but never a queen - it'll still go out in the wet, just looked after and dried.

It's a pretty original car; the first owner had it for 20 years, it then passed through a number of keepers until I bought it. Therefore it managed to avoid the abuse of boy racers in the 90s! It seems that the first owner was a giffer who, from the mid-80s, only did 2k miles a year. (Yes the paintwork is original - it's an unusual colour, only used on Capris for one year as far as I can tell).

In my ownership I've essentially been trying to keep it reasonably neat. Manual everything - steering, radio knobs, choke, windows... comes with the extra options of a heated rear window and a parcel shelf. Perish the thought! It's currently off the road having had welding repairs completed to various bits, mostly the A pillars and sills. 
 
2000 Ford Mondeo 2.0i Ghia X Estate
Purchased from this very forum, when I realised that I now relied on a car for commuting and putting the eggs in the basket of one car was tempting fate. Plus it came at a good time when I was post house-move and needing to sort out a heck of a lot of stuff, so the estate comes in very handy.
 

It had a few challenging times, especially with the cooling system. It took a few months to finally get to a stage where it wasn't an incontinent old thing, and I didn't need to carry a gallon of mixed antifreeze in the back. One memorable occasion saw it towed home by the Bluebird (which resulted in the battle scar covered over by gaffer tape on the bumper).
A high end executive car of its time, and it carries the 180,000 miles well. Most things still work - the central locking is a bit temperamental sometimes, but the other toys are all there - heated seats, heated windscreen, air con, cruise control, electric seats, etc. Very good over winter cos of the heated bits, and in the height of summer cos of the air con. You can fit loads of stuff in the back, it's very useful for lugging stuff around. Towbar fitted, although seldom used.
 
2003 Ford Focus 1.6

Purchased recently from this forum, a very competent (and ULEZ compliant) 1.6 Focus. It is very clean and very well looked after, and features AC and heated windscreens (extra features that actually matter to me!). I intend on keeping this clean and using it for trundling around town.
 
Former Vehicles
 
1980 Nissan Bluebird 1.8GS

I bought this as a result of a chance discussion with a guy from the motorfactors who was selling it. At the time I was feeling bad about using the Capri for mundane things, so when this was up for sale I gave into temptation and a low price, and picked it up.

Again, quite an original car. Would I call it dull... not quite, it's very good at being an car, it's not the most exciting thing you'll ever drive, but is pretty practical. It's also usually bombproof and reliable. Reasonably easy to work on, very comfortable and easy for the driver; you can understand why so many of these were minicabbed in the 90s! I sadly had to sell this car in June 2023 due to the impending expansion of the ULEZ into my area.
 
 
 
 
 
The Capri lives in a lockup garage where I do minor tinkering and spannering. I'll do most jobs on the Capri myself, except anything welding related or needing a ramp. I have a good local garage who are sympathetic to old stuff and don't charge much, especially as I'm never too pushy on timescales.
 
and, because I'm sad- err I mean pedantic, I keep notes in a book for each car...

... oh, and all three cars have cassette players - who says I'm stuck in the past?! I did for a while organise the collection into the era of each car, but that got too messy.
 
So, that's me, that's the fleet, now for updates...

Capri returns!

Now fully solid and just in need of paint. 

Feels very odd without the windscreen. But it's a great feeling to drive her, even if that's just manoeuvreing around the yard. 
While I wait for her to go in for paint, I've got a couple of jobs to do. I've got some new nylon fuel line here, plus all the rubber bits, and I've also taken the headlining down to look at the rear washer system. The pump works, so there's a blockage somewhere...

It's been bastard cold during January and I've been busy and tired, so progress limited.
The Capri turned 44 today! 4 years ago I celebrated the historic status being achieved. I celebrated with a picture on the top of The Spires, complete with a pound shop decoration.


At the time, I had the front seats out and with an upholstorer who did a really really good job with them. I still have the passenger seat, which I picked up from someone in Thetford, it's actually in the car now as I'd worry about damaging the nice originals with so much work ongoing!
End of Jan 2020. How little we knew about how the world was about to go slightly mad.... I still have the banner somewhere. If I keep it for another 6 years, it'll be valid for me!
Back to today.
I did get the brake lines out, including the rear one. It was quite a bugger to release, and I ended up cutting through it so I could get a socket on the rear cylinder. A new full car set is only £55, with all the pipes cut and bent to size. I may also spray them green, which was the original colour.
The hydraulic system was then drained, master cylinder removed, pulled most of the electrical and bauden cables from the front of the car together and secured it. Then got to work on a bit of the surface rust on the engine bay, in a location that would usually be an utter bastard to get to.


Hoping to go away in a couple of weeks and come back for easter.
I changed the coolant on the Mondeo a while ago, and I think I managed to introduce an air lock. The heater varies wildly, as does the indicated temperature and coolant level. I had to pull off the A1 today at South Mymms to top up the expansion tank. Back home, and in the dark, I took off the highest hose in the system (on the rhs of the expansion tank here, next to the water-bottle-funnel) and ran the engine until water started spitting out. See if that behaves any. A little easier solving them on the Capri, massage the big hoses and keep the rad cap off!

The Mondeo also needs 2 new tyres soonish (down to about 3mm). Various long trips in the next few months including Scotland three times, Norwich and Brizzle. 

It's been bastard cold during January and I've been busy and tired, so progress limited.
The Capri turned 44 today! 4 years ago I celebrated the historic status being achieved. I celebrated with a picture on the top of The Spires, complete with a pound shop decoration.


At the time, I had the front seats out and with an upholstorer who did a really really good job with them. I still have the passenger seat, which I picked up from someone in Thetford, it's actually in the car now as I'd worry about damaging the nice originals with so much work ongoing!
End of Jan 2020. How little we knew about how the world was about to go slightly mad.... I still have the banner somewhere. If I keep it for another 6 years, it'll be valid for me!
Back to today.
I did get the brake lines out, including the rear one. It was quite a bugger to release, and I ended up cutting through it so I could get a socket on the rear cylinder. A new full car set is only £55, with all the pipes cut and bent to size. I may also spray them green, which was the original colour.
The hydraulic system was then drained, master cylinder removed, pulled most of the electrical and bauden cables from the front of the car together and secured it. Then got to work on a bit of the surface rust on the engine bay, in a location that would usually be an utter bastard to get to.


Hoping to go away in a couple of weeks and come back for easter.
I changed the coolant on the Mondeo a while ago, and I think I managed to introduce an air lock. The heater varies wildly, as does the indicated temperature and coolant level. I had to pull off the A1 today at South Mymms to top up the expansion tank. Back home, and in the dark, I took off the highest hose in the system (on the rhs of the expansion tank here, next to the water-bottle-funnel) and ran the engine until water started spitting out. See if that behaves any. A little easier solving them on the Capri, massage the big hoses and keep the rad cap off!

The Mondeo also needs 2 new tyres soonish (down to about 3mm). Various long trips in the next few months including Scotland three times, Norwich and Brizzle. 

One wall and one desk, please!

@rob88h in the CITROËN BX 14 E Leader thread

There’s interesting cars from after 1990 for sure but I think it’s the people at these car shows
Ford Enthusiast - Has the Ford Motorsport jacket, always goes ‘shame it’s not a 2.8’ or whatever when someone has brought a lovely old 2.0 GL out.
MGB Man - always farting about with something and never washes his hands properly, constantly ingrained with EP90. Knows exactly how many rivets a 1967 Roadster should have on the top hat something or other
Family Bullshitter - Cannot help himself with quoting an absolute horseshit fact like ‘The police actually still have over a 100 unregistered Rover SD1 as part of a strategic reserve for when electric cars come along’
My A3 would piss all over that - We know that a 1983 Capri wouldn’t win a raffle, it doesn’t renew it completely pointless against your A3.
The liar - Furtively looks at something then interrupts mid conversation with some shite about how his dad had a Mondeo Cosworth, Ford only made one of them and what with his dad stacking shelves in Fine Fair, he was chosen to test drive it. It had 426 horsepower and he did 185mph on the Dymchurch bypass with it. It’s in his dads lock up and he takes it out at night when nobody can see it. And it would piss all over your fucking Tesla on a race! 

The panic button. Code 13, yellow 1 and when to use it. 
Despite working Merseyside we drivers get less trouble than you might think but alas tonight was one of those nights. 
I drop off a lady on one end of a council estate with a less than glowing reputation and immediately receive a message on my datahead informing me of a driver having trouble with his passengers about half a mile away on the other end of the estate. Clearly I'll be the nearest car so I nail it to the driver's last reported location while on the phone to the office so I know what car to look for. En route I see another of our cars and he spins his 63 plate Insignia around and follows me as he's not too sure about the local geography. 
We turn up as the first on the scene leaving me decision on how to approach the problem, either try and calm the situation or go in on a shock and awe basis. 
When we arrive a fat bloke and tarty woman jump out of the car. They're most vocal about the driver refusing to take them any further as he'd billed them a tenner up front for the journey and they wanted to go somewhere else now where the money would be to pay him. 
Right then, I nip over to get the driver's side of the story only to see him fucking off sharpish in his Mondeo leaving me and the other lad to deal with the situation.  In all my years this is the first time that's happened. 
Now we're not exactly in the best possible position here, the estate is miles from anywhere where other driver would be and the only major route into the estate was a lever crossing that was closed for maintenance 10 mins ago. 
At this point his slapper starts insisting that one of us take them! No fucking way and her fella wants us to refund him! Even less chance!!! At this point myself and the other driver agree that just calmly driving away and leaving them to sort it out with the office is the best plan of action. 
We leave the scene and meet up around the corner. Needless to say, we were more pissed off with the driver we had come to assist for leaving us than with the abusive passenger.

As we're on the subject of When Passengers Attack I thought I'd give a belated update about the worst one I had to attend.
This was about late 2005 or early 2006. It was about midnight on a Friday night when my datahead screeched loudly to say a fellow driver had hit the panic button. On our old Auriga dataheads we had a silent alarm system where if a driver hit *0 at the same time all other cars were alerted but his set remained silent. The Auriga system relied on an external GPS, a datahead to display jobs and messages all linked to a two way radio. 
Sadly a few of us heard his last known address wrongly over the radio and headed to another location about a mile and a half away. Fortunately, the location we went to was high up a hill so we could hear more clearly his exact position so we headed off there. 
There was maybe four cars already there when I arrived. I walk over to his silver Peugeot 406 to see him slumped behind the wheel semi-aware of what had happened. He was bleeding heavily and the grey interior of his 406 was both covered in blood and smashed up, one of his attackers had opened his driver's door and kicked away indiscriminately even smashing the Peugeot's cowling on the steering column and breaking the key. 
Although this had happened a good 15 minutes earlier there was no sign of police or an ambulance in attendance yet and several drivers were desperately phoning 999 for help only to be told that an ambulance would be at least 15 minutes away and the police were busy at the moment.
Between lapsing in and out of consciousness the driver managed to give a description of his attackers and the circumstances that caused this. It turns out that he'd picked two lads and a woman from a Chinese restaurant and during the three mile journey his passengers had started fighting with each other. When he tried to break it up they all started attacking him! 
As we now have a decent description we pair off to look for the cunts. I get into the back of a TX2 belonging to a lad looking for blood and revenge! Fair enough you may think but this lad was maybe 27, looked a bit errrr.... effeminate (although he was dating a hot telephonist at our office) and now way looked like the sort of fella who you'd want backing you up in a fight. We drive around the estate and see some likely suspects. He jumps out and goes all psycho, fair enough but although I'm certain that this group of people knew what happened, and almost certainly know the names we're looking for, there's no blood on any of them and no way could a beating be justified. My hack driving, Rylan Clark-Neal impersonator colleague thinks otherwise and I have to drag him away from getting himself a criminal record. 
I get him back in his cab, telling him that although I agree with him it's not worth the fallout without proof and we drive back to the crime scene just as an ambulance is arriving to take our, heavily bleeding, colleague to hospital. The poor cunt waited a good half hour for an ambulance! Still no sign of the plod though. He's taken away and I call for someone I know to recover his car.
 Anyway, the following night I'm (illegally but it was sort of tolerated back then) plying for hire outside the row of local nightclubs in town when a mate who works on the doors runs up to my car desperately trying to get my attention. I lower my passenger window and he tells me that there's a young lady in the club who's having an asthma attack! She doesn't want to go to the hospital but wants to go home as she has a nebuliser there that'll get her breathing normally again and could I please get her home PDQ. 
He and a couple of other door staff in the club (not all bouncers are cunts) carry her into my car and I hammer it away from there to her home address about three miles away. 
My Mondeo at the time had a headlight out so I was running on fog lights as well so I was half expecting a pull anyway that night. I'm "making progress" and we're about halfway there when I see a police car heading towards me, not just any police car but the Merseyside Police puppy walking Fiesta manned by an inspector showing a new probationer the ropes. 
He sees a speeding taxi with a headlight bulb out heading toward him and thinks about swerving into my path to stop me but bottles it at the last moment and chooses to turn around and get behind me. I slow down a bit and he throws on his blue lights to stop me. I pull over. I, along with my still struggling to breathe, passenger get out. He gets out of the training car (the training car was the only Fiesta on the police fleet at the time, all other beat cars were Focii back then) along with the young WPC he was trying to impress and strolls over to me all red faced and, keen to look like Mr Big Man in front of his fit probationer starts to scream at me for speeding and having a headlight out. The young WPC can see that my passenger is in distress and looks genuinely concerned for her welfare. Inspector Big Bollocks is having none of my excuses for speeding and starts interrogating my gasping passenger demanding to know if she knows me! 
Inspector Arsehole is rapidly learning that he's starting to look like a massive bellend in front of a new recruit that he was trying to impress and is rapidly running out of prosecution options. He demanded to know why I didn't call an ambulance. I reply "About this time yesterday one of our drivers got severely beaten and the ambulance took at least half an hour to arrive, shit I know but it was still a hell of a lot quicker than it took for you lot to turn up". Inspector Limp Dick, knowing that he now looks like a bit of a twat, sends me away to complete my mercy mission with a stern warning to get a new headlamp bulb.

"It's just... Err... I don't have my wallet to pay for this unique British Leyland keyfob, six randoms on a roffle and a NOS bit of Ford Sierra trim... Maybe we could... Come to an arrangement?"

Engine came out with very little hassle in the end-

Bloody heavy things, a pinto with a gearbox attached. Nicely stowed in the garage for now.

leaving a bereft looking engine bay

Featuring, pile of washing powder over where the gearbox pissed everywhere (just when I thought it was empty!).
Next jobs, removal of o/s wing mirror, clean and degrease the engine bay, remove the brake lines (bar the one to the back - that's a bugger and can stay) and servo/master cylinder.

Being entirely new to removing engines, and somewhat of a worrier, I'm half convinced that I'm making a massive cockup and it'll never in a million years go back together. But then credit myself with a little confidence that it's all a case of following instructions and being methodical, and even if I do somehow cock it up, I'll learn in putting it right.
Pep talk over, I went through the list from the HBOL...

 
I thought I'd be a smartarse and mark up the propshaft lining up with a chinograph pencil, luckily realised just before taking it off that the grease and so on down here won't guarantee it surviving. I ground a little nick to be sure of having some reference when putting it back together.

The nuts were a bugger to undo with limited ground clearance and a bit of play in the shaft! A spare extension bar was used to stop it rotating, which allowed the nuts to be cracked. A little tugging later and the propshaft slid off.

Also, there's something satisfying about looking at shiny new parts, even if you know that within a few miles it'll be mucky! 

Next job, try to separate the bits of exhaust which really aren't for coming apart... (or, give up, take the angle grinder to the bottom of the manifold, and treat myself to the new manifold as the current one is a bit rusty...)

I've been quiet for quite a bit, a combination of weather, work, and illness.
The wait for paint drags on, I've been pointed towards somebody who has said he can take the car at the end of Jan. We shall see.
After a while discussing engine out vs engine in, I decided it should come out so the bay can be painted too. May as well.
Started by removing the bonnet - a 2 man job, which I managed alone, although I think if it was a finished car with glass in I'd have wanted a second person.

Oil and coolant drained, rad out and all hoses, fuel line off, vacuum, choke and throttle off, battery out, carburettor off...
Lots of random photos taken along the way as reference points of linkages etc, hoses marked up with chinograph pencil.

 

Rest of the fleet - Focus is plodding along quite happily, albeit it is slow on the take-off - whether this is a clutch issue or something I'm not sure, but may need to check and adjust. Mondeo is fine, I did a coolant change and had an air lock I think as we had intermittent heat output and at one point wildly varying temperature gauge - ran the engine parked uphill with the cap off and topped up a bit, seems better now.

I gained one of these task lights a few months ago, left behind and not collected by contractor or contractors unknown.

The reviews talk about the battery life being shite which, unfortunately, is pretty true. Despite showing full charge, it'll normally only last 2-3 hours before flashing and giving up. Which is a shame because it's a bloody good light!

Capri returns!

Now fully solid and just in need of paint. 

Feels very odd without the windscreen. But it's a great feeling to drive her, even if that's just manoeuvreing around the yard. 
While I wait for her to go in for paint, I've got a couple of jobs to do. I've got some new nylon fuel line here, plus all the rubber bits, and I've also taken the headlining down to look at the rear washer system. The pump works, so there's a blockage somewhere...

Engine came out with very little hassle in the end-

Bloody heavy things, a pinto with a gearbox attached. Nicely stowed in the garage for now.

leaving a bereft looking engine bay

Featuring, pile of washing powder over where the gearbox pissed everywhere (just when I thought it was empty!).
Next jobs, removal of o/s wing mirror, clean and degrease the engine bay, remove the brake lines (bar the one to the back - that's a bugger and can stay) and servo/master cylinder.

Engine came out with very little hassle in the end-

Bloody heavy things, a pinto with a gearbox attached. Nicely stowed in the garage for now.

leaving a bereft looking engine bay

Featuring, pile of washing powder over where the gearbox pissed everywhere (just when I thought it was empty!).
Next jobs, removal of o/s wing mirror, clean and degrease the engine bay, remove the brake lines (bar the one to the back - that's a bugger and can stay) and servo/master cylinder.

Engine came out with very little hassle in the end-

Bloody heavy things, a pinto with a gearbox attached. Nicely stowed in the garage for now.

leaving a bereft looking engine bay

Featuring, pile of washing powder over where the gearbox pissed everywhere (just when I thought it was empty!).
Next jobs, removal of o/s wing mirror, clean and degrease the engine bay, remove the brake lines (bar the one to the back - that's a bugger and can stay) and servo/master cylinder.

I was thinking about the clutch, but it was replaced 5 years / 14k miles ago, so I don't think it'd be worth it? Good shout on the rear crank seal!
 

Being entirely new to removing engines, and somewhat of a worrier, I'm half convinced that I'm making a massive cockup and it'll never in a million years go back together. But then credit myself with a little confidence that it's all a case of following instructions and being methodical, and even if I do somehow cock it up, I'll learn in putting it right.
Pep talk over, I went through the list from the HBOL...

 
I thought I'd be a smartarse and mark up the propshaft lining up with a chinograph pencil, luckily realised just before taking it off that the grease and so on down here won't guarantee it surviving. I ground a little nick to be sure of having some reference when putting it back together.

The nuts were a bugger to undo with limited ground clearance and a bit of play in the shaft! A spare extension bar was used to stop it rotating, which allowed the nuts to be cracked. A little tugging later and the propshaft slid off.

Also, there's something satisfying about looking at shiny new parts, even if you know that within a few miles it'll be mucky! 

Next job, try to separate the bits of exhaust which really aren't for coming apart... (or, give up, take the angle grinder to the bottom of the manifold, and treat myself to the new manifold as the current one is a bit rusty...)

Very true and there are a number of options (ranging from scratching head and reading the manual and re-doing stuff myself, to phone a friend, to paying someone to do a job properly) if I do.
My phone is progressively fuller of photos of the car in various states of disassembly i the same way that 'normal' folk have repetitive pictures of kids or pets... 😂 wiring looms labelled up etc.
The engine itself shouldn't need any work doing to it as it is in good fettle and runs fine, other than an exterior clean up and degrease perhaps. I will do new service items (points/plugs) when it's finished but don't want to do unnecessary jobs while it's out, find there's an issue with it, and have to trace lots of different variables!