Project Cleaning the Clutter in Our Engine Bay

[Zman12]

Kinda sucked you weren't happy with the work you paid to have done. Hope it saved you some time at least!

[572HP]

Synner...looking good. Nathan...I know what you mean. I took all of my parts to a metal polisher that specializes in car parts. They quoted me about $600 to sand everything down to a brushed finish. Then I decided (needed to) paint the water pump, and powder coat the brackets. After all was over (and 3 weeks of waiting), I went to pick up the parts and they were powder coated and painted, but were not even close to having everything sanded down like we had agreed on. They only charged me $250, but the parts were good enough. I could have come home and did what you did, but I was so ready to get the car back together. Your heads are going to look so awesome.

[mikeyroche]

Anybody gotten ride of that stupid AC line? I'm trying to figure out the best way to re-route that.

[Kilo-9]

I have some ideas for the AC line. I just haven't gone forward with them. I thought about having AN fittings welded onto the mounting point at the firewall and to the line set down low. Then, you could run Teflon-lined braided hose down and somewhat out of the way. I spoke briefly with a local hot rod fab shop about this, but we never came up with a concrete plan or price.

[Synner]

Nathan my guess is he didn't sand anything, especially for that price. He just used a rough cut wheel like a sisal and aggressive compound. Then it doesn't even look like he used a finer compound to remove the scratches.

My estimate is 3-4 full days of work on the pump although I use a fair amount of hand sanding to get things perfectly smooth at the end. No stone, grinder, or cylinder will get the smoothness I want.

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by Zman12

Kinda sucked you weren't happy with the work you paid to have done. Hope it saved you some time at least!

I had 12 hours on one before taking them to him. That's why it seemed so appealing to have somebody else finish them. I put in another eight hours yesterday. Plus the time I spent droping them off to the guy and picking them up. Buying sanding material, etc, etc, etc........ You could say he did save me some time. But like Kilo-9 told me, most people don't realize how much work something that might look simple takes.

Originally Posted by 572HP

Synner...looking good. Nathan...I know what you mean. I took all of my parts to a metal polisher that specializes in car parts. They quoted me about $600 to sand everything down to a brushed finish. Then I decided (needed to) paint the water pump, and powder coat the brackets. After all was over (and 3 weeks of waiting), I went to pick up the parts and they were powder coated and painted, but were not even close to having everything sanded down like we had agreed on. They only charged me $250, but the parts were good enough. I could have come home and did what you did, but I was so ready to get the car back together. Your heads are going to look so awesome.

I'm spending the extra time because I figure that if I pulled the engine, I might as well put the extra effort in.

Originally Posted by Kilo-9

I have some ideas for the AC line. I just haven't gone forward with them. I thought about having AN fittings welded onto the mounting point at the firewall and to the line set down low. Then, you could run Teflon-lined braided hose down and somewhat out of the way. I spoke briefly with a local hot rod fab shop about this, but we never came up with a concrete plan or price.

That's exactly what I plan to do. Great minds think a like. I think that's what Kyle did on his last project. By the way, where is that guy?

Originally Posted by Synner

Nathan my guess is he didn't sand anything, especially for that price. He just used a rough cut wheel like a sisal and aggressive compound. Then it doesn't even look like he used a finer compound to remove the scratches.

My estimate is 3-4 full days of work on the pump although I use a fair amount of hand sanding to get things perfectly smooth at the end. No stone, grinder, or cylinder will get the smoothness I want.

Synner, you absolutely right! I found that at the end of the day, if you want it to be straight, your going to have to do it by hand. In my case, block sand. That's why I heard Chip Foose had $30,000 into a bumper for his "Tera Cuda" project. They kept getting it nickel plated and blocking. This process was repeat countless times before sending it out to get the final chrome. Probably one of the straightest bumper you'll ever see.Now, most people will pass by the car and just notice the wheels, LOL.

[Synner]

Ya'll are gonna think I'm crazy but the dremel chain saw sharpener is the best grinding stone I've used so far. It's 3/16" in diameter, fits in everywhere, and seems to be lasting forever. It would be horrible for large surfaces but in all the tight corners that you struggle with its perfect. Use a bit of WD40 or it'll skip. I was going through tapered cylinders like crazy trying to get all the tough spots and then this thing, 10 seconds and done.

Nate, you may want to pick up 10 even though they last forever since you'll be smoothing your frame, seat belt, or whatever else you rip out next.

[Synner]

Finished the 80 grit, got the 120 done on the left half. Around the pulley is going to be a serious pain to get to my satisfaction.

[Moreno1]

I was thinking the seat belts could use some loving, LOL.

I officially done with the heads

Just to show how much detail work I've put into them, look closly in the the area marked in red.



In this pic, you can see how I grinded down that section to make all level with the deepest point.



I think I must have removed a few ounces between both. Doc should under take this project since he is about as crazy as I am when it comes to reducing weight!

Tim from Lingenfelter mailed me some boxes designed to ship heads. I was hoping to have them by Friday but they haven't come it yet. Hopefully Monday.

Plans call for powder coating the timing chain cover, oil pan and the heat shield for the starter in a texture black. I'm thinking of coating the valley plate in a satin black and perhaps motor mount. Not sure what I'm going to do with the front drive brackets yet. Next comes paint the engine in a sating gun metal gray.

[NC-V]

Originally Posted by Kilo-9

I have some ideas for the AC line. I just haven't gone forward with them. I thought about having AN fittings welded onto the mounting point at the firewall and to the line set down low. Then, you could run Teflon-lined braided hose down and somewhat out of the way. I spoke briefly with a local hot rod fab shop about this, but we never came up with a concrete plan or price.

Nathan: Been a little busy lately but still around.


Kilo: We have done this on projects before and there are a few things to be careful about. There are very few braided hoses out there that will not seep refrigerant and Teflon is not the way to go. We have discussed with multiple hose manufacturers (after loosing refrigerant in leakless systems) and if you are going braided, you want a nylon liner. Aeroquip makes a good braided nylon lined A/C hose with steel O-ring fittings. I also recommend sticking with the standard O-ring sealed A/C fitting. It will provide a much more reliable seal than AN/JIC tapers and you can't tell the difference when they are screwed together.

[BLACK10]

i need to get some more recent pics of my bay on here, but until then here is a customers engine bay that i did a little cleaning up on. nothing special, just Holley valve covers, BBK fuel rails, heater hose reroute along with a few other wire and hose rerouting

[BLACK10]

Originally Posted by Nathan Moreno

Got the heads off and was cleaning them some before I send them to Lingenfelter for some of their magic.



That's it for now. Another friends birth day party. To many parties. I'm going to have to get rid of some friends, they are infringing on my project, LOL

By the way, I need some new addicts..... I mean recruits! Starting to get lonely now that NC-V, Indy, Roctrux, 572HP and PaulSS have all finished their cars. :(

you are a sic person and you need help

if i had the time i would be doing all the same things to mine


been there with my 66 already.........

[Bay Area SS]

Originally Posted by BLACK10

you are a sic person and you need help

if i had the time i would be doing all the same things to mine


been there with my 66 already.........

Nice and clean and tidy. Very nice. The old school motors look so much better imo

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by NC-V

Nathan: Been a little busy lately but still around.


Kilo: We have done this on projects before and there are a few things to be careful about. There are very few braided hoses out there that will not seep refrigerant and Teflon is not the way to go. We have discussed with multiple hose manufacturers (after loosing refrigerant in leakless systems) and if you are going braided, you want a nylon liner. Aeroquip makes a good braided nylon lined A/C hose with steel O-ring fittings. I also recommend sticking with the standard O-ring sealed A/C fitting. It will provide a much more reliable seal than AN/JIC tapers and you can't tell the difference when they are screwed together.

Kyle, good to hear from you. Missed having your input.

Originally Posted by BLACK10

you are a sic person and you need help

if i had the time i would be doing all the same things to mine

been there with my 66 already.........

So basically, you're like the pot calling the kettle black, LOL. By the way, nice job on the both!

Originally Posted by Bay Area SS

Nice and clean and tidy. Very nice. The old school motors look so much better imo

I agree. That's probably why I'm tackling this project. Hoping to make it look more like an engine and simplifying things up.

Quick update, the power steering pulley came with a ding from shipping. So I'm having it replaced. In the meantime, I'd figured I used this one to monkey with and try different finishes. The challenge with the Innovators West pieces out of the box is that they tend to have surface scratches.



I sent some pictures to them today it it seems to be par for the course. And what I have is pretty standard. Being that the pieces are meant mostly for racing, most people don't have a problem with the finish. But in my case, we all know I'm OCD. So I took the pulley to the same company Meziere uses to do there anodizing and see what my options were. I didn't want to do black because like Synner said, they tend to turn purple over time because black doesn't have good UV resistance. Even florescent light will make them turn over time.

So my other option was a gray anodizing. Now depending on the finish prior to anodizing it will determine the end result. If you start with a polished piece, you'll end up with a bright finish. A beaded piece will give you a dull finish.

They had pieces in different natural aluminum finishes (polished, beaded, raw) with clear anodizing. This is what I'm leaning towards (Come to think of it, I should've taken some pictures for you guys )

I had them bead-blast the power steering pulley to get a feel of how it looks. Kinda neat but not sure it's what I'm looking for.



Ideally, if I can get the same look as the water pump, I'd be extremely happy. So tomorrow, I'm going to drop another pulley to Meziere and have them put it in their tumblers. If I get the same look, then I'll have all the piece done with clear anodizing.

Man, who would have thought this was going to be this much work and fore-thought

Originally Posted by OVRKILL

Bought this last year, so no. Are they changing the style?

Spoke with them today, it's similar, just for the 5th gen. I should have their high performance pump along with the new pulley first of next week. I'll post pictures.

On the power steering reservoir tank, I'm going to give the stock one to Meziere to see if how much it would cost to replicate in billet. I'll let you guys know. Perhaps we can make a list of the people who are interested and do a group buy to reduce the cost.

This is kinda the look I had in mind.