Enter three Witches. 'And now about the cauldron sing ...... de-rusting all that you put in'.

The subframe just fitted inside the cage and after the addition of some thick fuel tubing to the bottom rim to stop the work from shorting out, I switched on the battery charger. The amperage was too high at 6 amps - 2 is recommended - but I left it for a few minutes to see if everything was working. It was. After experimenting with hooking up a bolt in the line to increase the resistance and lower the amps, I woke up and simply reduced the amps to 3 by switching to 6v motorcycle battery mode on the charger.

An hour into the process and a thin film of rust and unidentified gloop was beginning to form on the water's surface, concentrating itself around the sacrificial anodes.

I left it overnight and by the morning things were looking good. It was beneficial to switch off the charger for a few minutes and scoop out the scum. I left the piece working away in the tub for a couple more days to see what happened.

The results bore some resemblance to the supper I prepared that night. It certainly wouldn't do to get them in a muddle. This experimental dish - Purè di patate e sgombri su pane tostato - was a mash of potatoes, mackerel, spring onions and tomatoes with a dash of Worcester sauce and lemon juice - on toast. Not successful; too many competing flavours and I overdid the onions. I should have mixed in some mayonnaise to add a bit of sweetness and help tone the onions down. As I didn't have any mayo at the time, I scrunched some lightly sea-salted crisps over the top instead.

The rest of the week's offerings worked out well - Salchichas Norfolk con delicias de papa y rábano picante,

.... Salade de maquereau et bacon,

....Omelette avec restes,

... und Fischfrikadellen und Spinat. When catering for the more sophisticated palate, a hint of the exotic is a winning strategy and of course, the importance of presentation can never be overstated.

Two days later and after a scrub and hose down, the subframe was looking quite respectable. It's still going to be quite difficult to get at the internal structure and when I cut out the thin parts ready to weld in the new patches, I'll take the opportunity to have a good chip at the worst of it. The nearside torsion bar tube (on the left in this picture) had a large amount of rusty and rubbery stuff still sticking to it probably caused by its end cap not lasting as long as its adjacent number.

Whilst the subframe was drying out, I turned my attention to the cylinder head and promptly sheared off all the bolt heads from the water jacket blanking plate. Once they're drilled out and the threads re-tapped, they'll be replaced with studs and nuts for the avoidance of a repeat performance. That's the problem with old cars, it's all double, double toil and trouble.