With the interior essentially done (save for cupboard doors) I set about fixing the new tailgate:
Some rust treated, painted and stuffed with insulation.
Given its weight I enlisted the help of my friend Tim, who is also 6'+ with the theory that we would hold the tailgate in place whilst our girlfriends did the appropriate spanner work. It proved impossible to budge the hinge blocks from the van as directed by haynes, so we undid them from the tailgates instead which worked a charm. Removing the gas struts proved more difficult, removing the clips/pins was easy but the cups were so full of crud it took some not so gentle hammer work to persuade them to let go of the balls on the gate. We cleaned them with a ton of carb spray then oiled before refitting.
And here she is, now with even more colours:
