Well, my plan to get the pistons & rods into the flathead block came to nothing when I had difficulty removing the rod bolts. The SCAT rods have 12 sided ARP bolt heads. Tried hard, but came close to damaging one of the bolts because I only have six sided sockets and no soft vice jaws to hold them in while doing the job. Decided to bundle them and take to the engine rebuilding shop in Gympie. The guys there will do the job in minutes, and they will treat them carefully, while using the right tools. I did put the pistons and rods together beforehand, so achieved something planned, I guess. When they come back, it will be full steam ahead and they should be into the block this coming weekend.
Had to make a steering wheel puller. The wheel in the grey truck required a lot of care to restore to original condition. Wait, I take that back. The once barely discernible grooves around the top surface are now gone completely, so not that original now. Bloody lot cleaner than before though! I will give the wheel a second going over with finer grade glass paper I will buy tomorrow. Used 240 grit first, then 600 grit, and next one will be 1000 grit. Burnishing cream will bring the final sand to a very nice finish. With any luck I will still be able to hold it while driving.
The degree of shine seen, is after polishing with Brasso, which doesn't work all that well. Brasso stinks too, and as a result of doing the polishing on lounge room floor while Mrs B watches TV, I am not very popular. The lounge room has an aroma akin to old cats urine. You can read that both as old whizz, or whizz from an old cat. The smell would be the same, terrible! Yuck. My snoz will be running for days.