Ruth's Fairlady Restoration
Here's the thing about trying to make 40 year old cars all shiny and pretty - they can build up A LOT of grime and grease over those 40 years. It takes a mountain of degreaser to remove 40 years worth of engine grime. A few statistics you may not have been aware of:

1.   Twelve cans of cheap $2 degreaser from Supercheap will fit in a Supercheap basket.

2.   Twelve cans will not be enough. You will need one basket for each hand. 

3.   Even then you will run out of degreaser just before you have finished, making it necessary to go back to Supercheap (where the attendant will know you on sight before this is finished) to pick up just one more can.

4.   Don't bother with just one more can. Might as well get a whole basket. You will save yourself several trips back to Supercheap by doing this.

5.   Don't hold the alternator against your stomach while you degrease it. Degreaser burns. Even through clothing. Degreaser burns to your stomach take about 3 weeks to heal.
 
But it's all worth it, the burns, the chemical smell pervading the entire house, the black greasy residue on the towels, when you have a sparkling clean engine bay like this. All ready for a shiny coat of...
...primer! Well, maybe not so shiny. But eventually she'll have paint.

Note the supremely skillful welding job that the Technical Adviser did on the crack around the brake master cylinder. You can't even tell where it was, can you?
No dash, no pedals, no springs in the seats - the poor little thing is a bit of a sad case at the moment. The more bits that come off, the more I question my decision not to just put the new windscreen in and get her on the road. I could be driving my baby around, but instead I'm ferretting around on the lawn hunting for dropped screws because apparently they are one-of-a-kind, no longer manufactured, unique to that particular part of this particular car, and completely irreplaceable.
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