12.7.2002-Keep on Cleaning

When you pull an engine out of a thirty-five year old car and then take said engine apart one tends to end up with a mess.  Cleanliness is not just next godliness in the world of automotive restorations, it's an imperative so today I took stock of the parts I had so far.  I boxed up those that wouldn't be needed for a while and then got to cleaning my garage again.  There was still a lot of dirt and grease from the engine removal so I spent some time sweeping, mopping and organizing the Cowpoke Racing restoration shop before I did anything serious.  After an hour or so this is what I had.

I spent some more time in the solvent tank on the cylinder head letting solvent shower on the part while I got to work on cam cover.  Someone had attempted to paint it crinkle black and the paint looked horrible.  I intend to polish the bare aluminum so the first thing that had to happen was to strip the paint. 

Here's a picture before............

And now after stripping..........

The next task will be to sand the casting marks out and get a uniform finish before I begin polishing the part on the big Baldor polisher lent to me by good friend and fellow Alfisti, Glenn Zucca.  I suppose I should get some polishing wheels first.

I've also spent some time using my friend's bead blasting cabinet.  The first item to get blasted was the fan shroud for the radiator.  It is a little bent and requires some straightening, but otherwise it's in good condition.  This part has the distinction of being the first one to be cleaned/blasted/restored on the car.  It will be the first item to be powdercoated, and I'll make sure that moment is captured in pixels.

Ciao!

TJ