Minutia

I can't understate the loss of momentum caused by the hours of searching for that clutch kit.  I liken it to the momentum in sports that can be lost after giving up that long pass or cheap goal.  I was following a "road map" that had a few things banking on my engine resting in the chassis by the end of Wednesday.  Primarily it was the loss of one bay of the garage.  Sucks to be so anal retentive!  I intend to keep each and every part of this vehicle dry until the big reveal and I needed the entire garage to do this.

I coped, but the grand order of things had to get shuffled.  So while the shitty weather and the inability to find some key hardware put the mating on hold, I went to work on the remaining minutia.  To find those bolts, I'll need to unpack each box in successive order.  Whilst doing so, I might as well attend to the restoration of those forgotten parts.  So, that's how I spent the last few days.  Here is the engine with painting complete and the missing bellhousing which awaits the discovery of the missing bolts!

And some of the minutia...

Now, here is one of those items that likely never make it into the restoration process.  It is the heat shield that bolts to the cowling of the tub where the exhaust passes (under the accelerator pedal).  Consequently, it is baked fried, broiled, beaten and bathed in hot oil nearly constantly.  Imagine this going on for 30 years?  What are the odds of it being salvageable?  100% bucko!  An adhesive sealer literally glued it to the tub but it was still pliable when I removed it last year.  It took some patience but off it came.  It's aluminum and could easily have been damaged.  Inside there is a foil covered fiberglass mat which I saved.  The first photo is the removal AFTER power washing the tub.

The insulation and some residue sealant (which is staying).

Now the miracle:  That baked on oily,greasy clay coating came off like melting chocolate with the POR "Marine Clean"!  This bright aluminum cover looked like this after 2-3 minutes of light brushing.  This, my friends, sets this restoration apart from all others!

One more problem.  I had the engine rebuilder remove the air-rail plugs which were welded shut when the engine was de-smogged.  They looked awful.  Here is a good photo showing this amateur job.

  My goal of finding a replacement plug with this nutty M14-1.50 thread ended yesterday.  So, I cut off the caps and ground down the burrs.  Now I have to figure out how to cleanly cap these guys off to look purrrfect..

Lunchtime!

Choices...  A boat still covered in late May?  Blasphemy!