Its all plain sailing from here

Right, this post is from the phone as the boat's cabin batteries are too dead to support the PC anymore...
There always seems to be a certain point in a project when it attains 'critical mass' and suddenly success is in sight. It's been different with different projects - with NOG that point came really late, when I already had done everything apart from the details. With this rebuild, it happened today.
The sight and sound of my 200di actually sat in the chassis and running was simply wonderful. Even before then, everything has gone really well during this rebuild. The axles springs and chassis all lined up and fitted perfectly, first time. The 'new' box went onto the engine second try, with a minimum of struggling. The engine and box sat near enough level on my first guess at slinging them with the puller block. All the engine mounts lined up in turn as I lowered the engine in. I even found the perfect hetro use for a abandoned boingy spring - it held the fuel tank up to the mounts while I stuck the fixing bolts in place.
I have to admit, the question interests me - is this run of success due to luck, or is it just the fact that I've done almost every job on a Landrover so many times that I now know by default the easiest way to in about it.

One thing that I can't put down to experience did impress me today - the 200di starting up for the first time in some years. It was sold to me as a good engine, but had been in storage as a spare for a long time. I was worried that lots of things might have gone wrong, particularly the fuel system, while it was laid up. However I rigged up a fuel system (of sorts), bled it through, connected a battery, cranked over for all of 5 seconds, and she was up and running. Talk about engines that start easily. The 2.25d in my current SIII takes more cranking than that from warm, never mind from cold.