ok, so 'detailing' might be a bit of an extreme..... but I want to clean up my engine from the oily lump it currently is, to some thing a little more respectable which wont let the rest of the restoration down..........and I know I could potentially spend months weeks getting it looking pretty!! I'm not so bothered about how the under side looks, mainly the engine bay I have stripped all of the tin ware off (except for the bit behind the bottom pulley ....but that will be comming off too) and I plan on painting all the tin ware gloss black in 2K the block isnt currently painted - should I clean and give it a polish up? ....or paint? ......or just clean - high temp paint if I do paint it? what about the barrels? .....they look a little rusty should/can they be painted? the rocker covers are very rusty....but I've seen you can get replacements so I might not bother cleaning mine up. so how much will be seen (with all the tin ware on) that I need to get looking nice? and bear in mind that I dont want to completely strip the engine or start taking heads/barrels off as the engine was running sweet when I took it out. thanks as always
i painted my block with heat resistent silver polishing it up would look better but you will have to keep it up it wont stay polished and i wire brushed the outside of the barrels and sprayed heat resistent black on them not that they can be seen when the tin ware is fitted. also fitted some cheap metal rocker covers and clips from gsf
Im not painting my block or heads im just going to degrease them and give them a good clean up with some autosol and a tooth brush I may paint the barrels with some satin black woodburning stove paint Im painting the tinware,pulleys etc and anything alloy has just been cleaned up like new Ive avoided mirror polishing anything because once you start it goes on forever and need constant re polishing over time
cheers guys ....thats what I was worried about with polishing .....I have access to a good buffing wheel at work .....but I'm thinking it will soon loose the shine . I used to restore SU carbs and got them fully detailed with lots of brass fittings all polished up, and the alloy all mirror polished......but it took so long to do! I'm thinking of giving the carb a bit of a polish...and perhapse the dynamo stand (well, it will hopefully be an alternator before it gets fitted up)
If you polish the carb and alternator stand it will make other parts look worse so youll end up polishing the intake manifolds and carb mount aswell Then the alternator will need polishing etc etc Then youll have to give it all a quick polish over once a week otherwise the surface will start to build up a layer of corrosion again
my block had been painted before so was easier to paint again than strip it back to the alloy to be honest by the time you have every thing fitted up you do get to see a great deal of it
Ill look forward to the pics of all the mirror polished bits then dude I use meguires metal polysh for keeping on top of an alloy shine as its got corrosion protection in it aswell http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_167641_langId_-1_categoryId_165527
Lol and you need time on your hands as time goes on to keep it looking tip top Thats why ive gone for the just clean and tidy up approach then the engine can age along with the bus
check my resto thread. I stripped the engine, masked up and sprayed the block with firecote VHT paint. then did the altenator mount and manifold etc and it looks pretty good. to do the barrels, i got black VHT paint and sprayed it onto a paint brush, then brushed it on, it gets in the fins. even though you wont see it. all in all it cost me about £300, 130 on powdercoat, then new crank pulley, fanbelt, pushrodd tubes, gasket and seal kit, alt and crank bolts, distributor cap, points, condenser, plugs, ht leads, coil, tinware bolts, inlet manifold boots and clips. just need a new fuel pump now and pipes.
I normally get type 4s up to this level if it's just a block rebuild... But if it's the full works then I'll do this...
correctamundo ,but if it floats your boat then go for it....Someone on vzi painted there engine bay like a chess board ,black and white squares I thought it looked ace...
This is mine just fitted. I painted all the tinware, pulleys, inlet manifold, generator stand and oil filler. Put new air hoses on and job done (plus removing tons of underseal and old paint from the bay itself!). I suppose I could do with a new/clean coil looking at the pic. Before: After:
