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Hello again brick shaped car enthusiasts!

It has been nearly a year since I last posted on here and progress has been slow, “due to COVID restrictions”
A phrase, if you’re anything like me you are sick of hearing, however I like to believe the end is in sight. Anyway this is a Land Rover post so let’s get back to that and what’s been going on.
After my last update in April I had to go back to work, I am a second engineer officer in the merchant navy and a key worker.
My commute to work was via 2 weeks quarantine and 3 COVID tests in Aberdeen where I was confined to my hotel room where my only human contact was when my meals were dropped off outside my door. Once that was done, I joined a German ship called the MV Lone.
The MV Lone is a heavy lift cargo ship and was home for the next 13 weeks.
We sailed from Rosyth to Lagos in Nigeria via Las Palmas for around a 1000tonnes of diesel (we burn 70/100m3 of diesel a day depending on speed of the vessel, so about the same as an old Land Rover) which we needed to complete the job supporting the construction of an offshore oil and gas project in Nigeria which utilised the Lones large deck and two 1000tonne heavy lift cranes.
Once home restrictions had eased and as a key worker I did not have to quarantine although I was COVID tested several times before I could even get home via Dubai! (Which off topic, is an amazing place even though all I seen was the airport, it’s so big bright new and exciting! I’d love to go back!)
As I was saying I returned home in July and with eased restrictions we were able to continue on with Boudica (Shetland marshal ambulance project)
Whilst I was away John was keeping the project going organising transport to Shetland of Boudica’s new galvanised skeleton as our chassis builder reopened. Believe you me trying to organise transport of such large items to Shetland is no easy task especially when you have to explain where Shetland is to begin with most of the time!
We got the ambulance into a shed on John’s Island of Whalsay (Pronounced Whalsaa) where he can continue working on her more easily without a 40min ferry crossing on top of travel.
The owner has decided to return the vehicle back to military specification rather than back to a camper.
I therefore took great pleasure in ripping out old kitchen cabinets and other soggy bits of MDF until I came across a pile of old tins of dog food the contents of which nearly killed us. Why would you open them? I hear you ask well, we didn’t. They burst when getting flung into the skip and damn well nearly killed us! The actual tins had rotted enough and the contents inside pressurised it to make ironically military grade chemical weapons!
An old Land Rover is full of surprises! A much nicer one being the original colour which was revealed to us by unearthing the transmission tunnel and whilst that was discovered I was busy blinding myself with rust removing the Land Rover wings doors and trying to salvage as much of the original vehicle as we can.
The original RAF blue colour confirms the fact that this was an RAF crash response vehicle rather than an Army variant. This makes it rarer. So we are pleased to discover we are bringing back to life (albeit with 90% new parts) a piece of our history a vehicle that served you as well as me in a way.
I managed to get back to Whalsay one more day before restrictions were tightened again which was nearly a non starter as the generator at the shed caught fire!
We were rescued by John’s wife’s uncle (Uncle-in-law?) who kindly lent us his one (as well as being the owner of the shed) so we could continue work.
We have the vehicle at a point now where the next job is engine removal but unfortunately we again had to stop due to COVID.
However, the ever tenacious John took the rotten axles to his garage so he could continue work at his home and found on eBay a pair of axles that matched what we have so, a strip down salvage and overhaul is ongoing at the moment.
Ideally ready to have a rolling chassis on which to build on and I cannot tell you how much I’m looking forward to that!
I find rebuilding is always so much more satisfying than disassembly, nice new shiny bits put on correctly with grease, rather as rusty bolts and grazed knuckles! It’s very therapeutic to an engineer like myself building it better than the designers intended!
Anyways, I wish I had more news and progress to share with you, but we just have to keep picking away (Shetland word is, “purling” as in “Purling away”) as best as we can.
And when restrictions ease hopefully it will just be the restrictions of rural life that is the main obstacle in this restoration.
Well, if you’ve made it this far we are like minded and therefore friends and online friends subscribe to their friends drive tribes as well as liking and commenting!
Thanks Callum and John
PS I promise to do a proper update when we have some serious progress