Finally got all the bits I needed to finish the axel.  Well I didn't get the shims for the diff but I have located some (thank you John, once again).  I started by fitting the diff back into the axel housing and then the half shafts.  I decided to use a gasket sealer along with the new gaskets having canvassed many opinions.  Once done I fitted the other components to the brakes and the drums themselves.

The service manual drew my attention to fact that the wheel cylinders are supposed to slide in the grooves cut out of the backing plate meaning that the plain nuts I used would work loose.  I need some nylock nuts for the job.

Having finished the brakes and the diff I turned my attention to the external components housed on the axel.  I fitted the handbrake rods and pivot leaver and realised that I don't have any split pins, how can I not have any of those?  I suspect I have and that they are stored in a very logical and sensible place that I have forgotten all about!

Then I got out my brake pipe flaring machine to make the pipes, a job I always love for some reason.  I got the brake pipe flaring tool from the place that my father used to work at.  When I was a whipper snapper I worked at his yard for a year before university and again for a year after it.  I learnt much of what I know now at that time.  My father
 did bodywork and a mechanic, a chap called Eric,  worked there taking care of all the stuff dad didn't want to get involved in.  Eric is an unusual man, well eccentric really, and a man who I grew really fond of.  He had a way of knowing how to do lots of different jobs.  What is most disturbing about Eric though is what happened to his tools.  He used to live, literally,  in a section of the yard that consisted of a comfy arm chair, a bottled gas heater and all his tools.  I left the yard as a young early twenty something year old to make my fortune in sales about the same time I sold the MG Midget that I had all through University.  I had had my fill of old cars at that point and bought a newish but very exciting motorbike.  I got totally wrapped up in new and reliable bikes for about 10-15 years.   During that time my Dad retired from work and passed the yard on to a friend who worked there.  Eric left and essentially his tools got distributed.  The only thing I got was the brake pipe tool which is why I started this whole story.  The crying shame is that most of the tools were thrown away because nobody had a use for them.  Oh how I would love them now.  It is often said that youth is wasted on the young but I regularly kick myself for not making more of `Eric, his knowledge and of course his tools.

The completed axel (less the diff shims and the correct nuts for the wheel cylinders)

The axel wrapped in polythene and hidden away in storage for, most probably, too long.