So far so good with the valve stem seal replacement , all the old inlet seals were intact (but very hard) , all the old exhaust seals were broken and floating on the valve stems (no wonder it was smoking so heavily on start up)
had a slight mishap whilst replacing the collets on no6 exhaust side , where I managed to drop one of the collets down an oil passage
After a trip to 2 Machine Marts and Halfords, I decided to try Maplin and got a torch with a magnetic pick up tool, luckily on the second attempt the lost collet was retrieved
So all the valves are now done, the new water pump, thermostat and associated pipework has been refitted
I'll spend the rest of the evening reading up on refitting the cams and write down all the torque settings of the parts I have to replace