"Before you embark on a journey of revenge dig two graves" - Confucious

Seriously. Somebody thought this was a good place for this ad?

Today was a holiday weekend at Pathway. 'nuf said. 

Pam had to work today - that makes three days in a row - so after church I drove out to Tonopah to see Ilsa. Besides being an artisan Pat is a genuinely nice guy. And once again, I left an hour later having learned a ton about body work.

 The work he's doing now is the time consuming and critical part of the process. He's sanding down the entire car with his air-powered rotary sander and 80 grit paper. That reveals low spots (dents) and high spots (somebody got in the habit of closing the front lid with things just a bit too tall for that space). He also finds places where problems were fixed cheap and easy and less than perfectly. The driver's door was opened too far and the thin metal of the door's skin tore. "Fill it with bondo!" Pat will reposition the hinge to it's proper place, weld the split metal and sand it smooth. Any bondo will be only a thin skin to insure a perfect coat of paint.

Here's a picture of Pat showing me how he uses the sander to reveal an imperfection, a very small and shallow dimple in this case. But what's remarkable about this pic is that Pat's in it. I asked him a few minutes later if he would pose in front of the car. "No, I don't take pictures!" He obviously didn't notice that I popped this one. He said he's had cars on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine and lots of others but he never allows them to use his name or his picture. He's shy. So this is something of a collector's item, huh?

Before I left I told him about being gone for two weeks on vacation, but he said when I get back I can come out any time I want to see the progress. Good guy.

I came home and crashed a bit and then went out to the garage. Got the bearing seals replaced on the driver's side rear axle and the drum all cleaned out. Tomorrow I'll put the new shoes on, close it up and go do the other side. What isn't done by Tuesday afternoon will just have to wait until we get back from vacation. 

In case you've wondered, brake cleaner tastes terrible.

Don't ask. 

It's Sunday night and I don't leave until the early hours of Wednesday morning, but my mind is already on vacation. That, plus Sunday night means nothing more to say. I'm saving it for tomorrow night's post. I've got a few tasks I want to get done before I call it quits for the day and a quart of ice cream in the freezer that really shouldn't be left there when we leave.