Well, had 6 days at home to play on the B over Easter. Of course there were other distractions so it wasn’t all spent on the car but I got a bit done. I got home to boxes of bits 
And an LT77 gearbox, complete with the release bearing, arm and gear lever, all for the price you usually just pay for the box! I also lined it up to the engine to check the bellhousing, fits perfectly.
Engine first, here it is with the crank in
This engine came with a crank driven oil pump, and therefore had a thicker timing cover so when my dad and I measured the SD1 cover & pulley with the new crank we expected there to be a gap between the pulley and timing gear. So we fitted everything up and it all marries perfectly, which is a relief 
Metal Cloyes adjustable timing gear fitted. There are 3 slots on the crank gear allowing you to use standard or advance/retarded timing. Seeing as the standard 3.9 cam is being used I stuck with standard.
And here it is, the short motor almost fully built up 
I have 2 distributors. One from my old 3.5 from a P6, the other from this circa 1993 3.9 and has electronic ignition. Can I use this system on my non fuel injected B or shall I just fit electronic ignition to the older distributor?
The sump and oil pickup are being cleaned and will be fitted next, once the gearbox is cleaned up I will fit them together and to a trial fit in the car. Dad thinks it might be easier to install the engine with no heads but I have one question: Can you install the cylinder heads with block hugger exhausts attached to the engine in situ?
Onto the body. The donor car was put back together and made rolling ready for sale or scrapping (Edit: Since this time I had a complete timewaster on eBay who after bidding £300 expected the car to be a brand new shell, so I may just weigh it in to avoid the eBay Codbags)
The car has good wheels, and nearly new tyres when I parked it up, so I fitted them to the shell. Its amazing how good a set of wheels cam make a project look isn’t it?!
Fitted the brake drums which I’d painted some time ago
Got the car out for some grinding, as the welds had failed on this part under the rear light
Ground it down and covered it in weld-thru primer ready for dad to weld it
I’ve not done much bodywork before, as my brother and dad are the experts at it. BUT in a bid to get confident with it I had a go on a simple part of the car first, so here is the rear quarter after some spot welding
I painted it to protect it a few months ago
Then I grinded it down.
Onto the shaping! First layer
I then sanded this with 80 grit to get the basic level and shaping, flattened it back again then added a bit more filler to take out any dips
Measuring it with a straight edge after the 3rd levelling off showed two tiny indents which I have put a slim of filler over. Dad tells me filler sinks sometimes so I ran out of time yesterday to finish it off but left this final layer on to harden before I go back in a few weeks to put the skim coat on and flatten it back with wet and dry, for my first attempt I’m very pleased so far:
I also got the floor painted with underseal in the corner that had to be left bare for the above welding, so now I’m just awaiting some padding material then I can paint and fit the fuel tank.
Cleaned some interior parts too. This is the washer pump casing before
And after, along with a few other parts
I was annoyed with the heater knobs though, I washed them in warm soapy water with a soft spongle and not only has the lettering started to fade, but also the plastic has gone sorted of faded, like its degrading. Is this repairable or shall I just get replacement knobs?
Painted up some engine brackets too
Finally, the new calipers have been painted red, and look nice.
On an interesting note, mum told me on the weekend that my brother (with the above mint Hillman) thinks I'm "rushing" the rebuild and will regret it...! That’s all for now folks, I’ll be off for the summer soon, so should make more progress!