Some updates over the past month:
I installed the Nardi shifter. It's tight getting in there to tighten the bolts. Shifts nicely. A Michelin inner tube was cut up to make a weatherproof seal between the bodyshell and Nardi, as per the original (but mine is better!).
Next I have to cut up some insulation to fit both under and over the fibreglass Nardi covers, which will take some trial and error, and finally fit the tunnel carpet over all that.
I mounted the carpet on the transmission tunnel after the removable insulation and fibreglass shells were installed.
I think this will be a provisional job because I realize now that the original carpet piece that the new one was modelled on was not the optimal shape for the area behind the shifter. You see the drop-off after the shifter boot, well that is about 7 cm shy of the end of the rear tunnel carpeted section. I guess the original carpet had a separate strip for that area.
So I made one up from the dark blue original tunnel carpet and it looks presentable, but the rigorous solution would be to have it all in one piece, with the lower section being part of the main tunnel carpet but shortened so it fits the radius of the lower tunnel ideally.
So when the car is on the road again and Covid-19 is under control I will visit the guy who made it and have him custom make another one in one piece.
A year later and before installing the engine, something had been bugging me. The fuel return line I had installed a year ago was too short and ended under the clamp you see on the left side of the photo. So I had installed a rubber injection-rated fuel line with clamp and clamped the whole mess under the holder. But it seems not rigorous and liable to cause leaks or some other problem over time. So yesterday I bought another 16 feet of 5/16 inch Cunifer line and made that line over again. Now it reaches to right under the fuel decanter filter, which is what it's supposed to do, with no hose clamp under a clamp that would be nearly impossible to access with the engine installed. Much better! I still don't know which is the fuel supply line and the return line, but if it's not the one I've connected to I can easily switch them. The rubber fuel line you see on one Cunifer line is going to be cut again for an inline fuel filter.
I also started tidying up the blower units and hope to be able to get the best one working and cleaned up.
3 January I did some work on the SOFICA blower unit. I have two. One had a noisy motor with lots of end play on the shaft, but much better brushes than the other one, which was quiet and had very little shaft play. So I swapped brush holders, which meant a little bit of soldering. Came out very well.
Then I extended the wires so the two speed switch that I have relocated from the blower unit to the dashboard can be fed, and found a good blocking plate for the switch hole.
The thing I should have got before now is a set of new rubber mounting washers for the motor, which is bolted through the front of the SOFICA housing. So, before putting the motor into the housing and putting it into the car I will make some of those.