Car is now ready for paint. Fortunately, in this form, there isn’t a lot to paint. The exterior panels at this point are the roof and rear wings only. The rest of the paintjob doesn’t matter much, the underside, well, who cares if there are runs or if you missed a bit in the boot? Paint can go on fast.

That said, we take a few detours at this stage, because with Mr David’s input we suddenly decide that it doesn’t need a filler flap at all, so that has to be eradicated, filled and smoothed.

Wheelarch filler is usually a lengthy process, but not too bad this time as the metal itself wasn’t in a bad state, we fixed that at the welding stage, so we are ready for gloss fast, this is just a question of a lot of primer and a lot of time sanding, but white is quite forgiving.

Gloss thrown at the shell after coats of etch primer and high-build 2-pack, a good few hours of wet sanding, and we’re suddenly into the assembly phase.

There are, however, rather more bits to the car than that. Doors, bonnet, boot, front wings, front and rear spoilers, sideskirts. The shell is less than half the paintjob.

We are very much trying to recycle, and nowhere does this show more than here. The front bumper is salvaged from Comer’s rolled car. It was smashed up pretty well, but we save it. Using the Bear’s mould we now have the facility to repair even well-shattered bodykits, and though a good few hours of time are needed, one finished bumper rolls out of the production line. We even managed to keep the little TWR logos in it.

Front wings were in a poor state. The V12 donor car donates one which merely needs the bottom putting back in it. The driver’s side though was beyond help, and once again we turn to the Comer wreck. The wing was seriously panned in, but not rusty. Well, much. Big hammers and a hint of violence straighten it back into filler-able territory.

The doors belong the car, so at least they fit, but they do need some lightness adding. Lots of it. An XJS door in road trim comes in at 29kg. My record to date is to get a steel door down to 9kg, but that involved huge work, and the sort of attention to detail that verges on OCD. Also about three days. 12-13kg is more realistic.

Stripping the doors is covered later.

Doors stripped, paint can now get thrown.

She looks rather white. The colour is a pure white, none of this Old English junk, we wanted a white so white that direct sunlight would hurt the eyes. Job done, it looks like Moby Dick’s missus.

Bonnet and boot are easier, just big flat panels. Bonnet is home-made, the Bear makes them now, carbon fibre nose and edging, fibreglass centre. Very light, but quite resilient, the damage seen in many modified class items is breakage at the front, and only the one on the red car, sourced from that John Lock character you may have heard of, has ever addressed that issue. Bear learned his lessons well, the carbon nose on his version is extremely tough, and the whole bonnet comes in at under 6kg.

The boot has to be modified. It too is fibreglass, but because we rid the car of the fuel filler we need to consider how we fill it up. The solution is an alloy tank, with the filler in the bootlid. Oh yes, we changed the entire fuel tank to satisfy Mr David’s aesthetic whim, he had much more input into this car than previous models, and it shows in the details. Fitting the filler cap externally obviates the need for a splash bowl in the boot.

The rear skirt has to be modified. The car is meant to resemble Eleanor’s little sister, so we want central exhaust silencers. To do so means exiting via the area that the bodykit occupies. Mr Angle Grinder soon takes care of that. Cutting this carefully retains enough of the lip to keep its strength.

The reclaimed pieces are imperfect. The front spoiler is a hint too wide, the wing’s curvature isn’t quite right, but for how they started out it’s pretty good.

The car’s colour theme is white with red stripes, and red sideskirts seem to fit the bill.

Paint complete. Time for the assembly phase. We like this bit.

All those hours of heat and sweat and injury, of noise and discomfort, suddenly we have something to show for it. We might have taken a few pictures. We were rather pleased with our little selves.

We have at this stage already totally changed our deadline. The influence of Mr David is very strong, he's pushing for a much higher quality car in terms of finish, and that means changing our timetable. You just can't produce glossy, clean stuff in a hurry. Oddly, we're not complaining. Timetable now says we need to be out at Brands. Which is ages.

STAGE 3 coming soon, bolting bits on!