You're not going to believe this but...

[Max Hedges]

It's Keefy here, staying at Max's, and we had a go at starting the FGT. We filled it with water (which slowly drained out from perished hoses) checked the oil, put a flexible hose from the fuel pump into a small can of fuel, gave it a bit of a tow to circulate the oil, then with Robert Farmer's electrical hotwiring, Max's tractor giving a little push, and Ashley Wilson's encouragement, and to our collective amazement, it started in about a quarter turn of the wheels and ran almost faultlessly, with the 60 year old HT wiring giving the occasional crackle and pop from the stub of an exhaust it even idled smoothly.
Fortunately I had my video camera set up to record the attempt, and even stills will follow soon just to prove it.
And I now know the meaning of Jon's s%^t eating grin, because I had one too. Max even started it with the crank to prove it worked.
Just as well the shower was cold this morning.