Then I went to fit the springs only to remember that I had stored them and was unable to access them so I looked for something else to work on. I found the grille and thought it would be a good thing to have a go at.
I had stripped the grille some time back and separated the two sections before making a start on cleaning it up. This is as it was having dug it out from under the bench.
I had studiously ignored the fact that one of the slats had broken away from the frame at one end though.
So I made myself a sandwich and searched Youtube for a video or two on how to braze. A great sandwich and many videos later I returned to the garage and got down to brazing. I had never bean able to braze successfully as a kid although I had watched both my Dad and my metalwork teacher do it many times. So I set up some practice pieces and tried and tried until I got somewhere that looked OK. However, the trial pieces kept pulling apart and I became unsure if I was making too much of my abilities. In the end I decided that there was no alternative so just go on with it. And it worked out well, if not too pretty.
You can clearly see the braze in the picture above but from the front it doesn't show.
Then I dug out the surround and cleaned that up before fitting the two parts together. I was delighted to discover that I had actually bought the small screws for assembling it when I took it apart, very organised.
I think it looks absolutely wonderful although I have some fettling on the fitment side of things to come, but by George does it look good.
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