"You don't get anything clean without getting something else dirty." - Cecil Baxter

I'll be leaving soon for my afternoon and evening schedule, all of which involves appointments in town. So here, shortly after noon, is my post for the day. No words of wisdom, provocative thoughts or theological insights. Just a pictorial summary of the progress on Ilsa. I've been working on her since 7 a.m. with a break for a 15 mile bike ride, but everything forward of the engine firewall is clean, painted and ready for reassembly.

This is what the beam looked like when the body came off. Covered with grease, dirt and undercoating overspray.

After hours of scraping and wire wheel work it looked like this:

And then, painted and back on the chassis with new shocks:

The chassis is also done (well, sort of). Here it is scraped of the tar board and grease and ready for paint:

And here it is after the rust-encapsulating paint:

Tomorrow morning I'll hit some of the spots that will be visible after the body's back on with gloss black chassis paint. The next stage is to put the new brake system in. Then I move to the back of the car. Now that the front beam is off the engine stand and reinstalled I can take the engine off and put it on the stand. That will allow me to clean up the back portion of the chassis, check the clutch and get into the engine. I'm both eager and anxious to find out what I've got there.

But now, a shower and lunch with a new attendee at Pathway. I enjoy getting to know the people who have decided to call Pathway home.