Painting the Engine

Ok, ok.... I'm slack... I get it... but I'm an important man and got a lot of important things to do.

But, I have managed to do a fair bit to on the Mustang, so thought I'd take the opportunity to blow out my server quota with a few photos.

In our last semi-exciting episode, I had just removed the engine from the car. Although a lot of different things have been done since then, today we'll continue following the engine on its exciting journey to restoration... well, a paint job at least.

First I stripped off all the non-essential (i.e. - easy to get off) bits.

I painted the manifolds first in a high-temp grey.

The harmonic balancer was next...

Yeah, the rubber is old and cracked... it'll need replacement one day.

Next, the valve covers are run through the media blaster to get all the old paint off, then sprayed with etch prime.

Then the tedious part... cleaning the engine block.  A dozen cans of degreaser and a high pressure hose gets most of it.

But getting all the nooks and crannies clean requires a bit of elbow grease... and time.

Finally, she's ready to go and the painting begins.  Note that I'm using Ford Blue, which is a standard colour that's been used by Ford for a million years or so.  Well, except for 1965, which was a lighter shade.

And here we are...

Now it's time to finish up all the bits and pieces and bolt them back on.  You can see the end result in another post.

Removing the engine

I know, I've been a little slack in keeping the updates coming... but I've been busy.  It's not like I had a lot of spare time when I acquired this thing  ;o).

First off is to disconnect and, where possible, remove everything that isn't bolted down.  er... you now what I mean.

I started with the alternator and the carbie.

Now at this stage I noticed something strange... where was the timing marker?

According to Chilton's it supposed to be just to the left of the fuel pump... sigh, something to worry about later...

Next I removed the heater box and hoses...

Followed by the water pump...

And... WTF?

The timing marker was hidden under the water pump.  Ummm... it's either a) the wrong engine, b) the wrong timing cover, c) the wrong water pump, or d) any combination of the above.  Still investigating that one...

Anyway, everything is eventually removed and disconnected and we're good to go, so time to bring in the engine hoist.

And with a bit of TLC...

Out she comes, no worries.

The engine now sits in the corner of a garage awaiting cleaning and painting. The engine bay is also ready for a good clean, then some bashing with a hammer to patch up the radiator damage before bringing in the welder.

Much, much more to come...

Tackling the engine bay

Yeah, way too much time on my hands...

Ok... interior is too expensive at this stage of the game, so I'm going to focus on the quick win stuff that shouldn't cost too much. But remember I did say that about the interior. Sigh...

Anyway, I gotta toss the over-sized, giant, mega radiator and put in our new 1966 repro. This will allow me to put everything back where it belongs and basically tidy up the engine bay.

So I drain the water, disconnect the hoses, remove a couple of bolts and tada... out she comes.  Now I've been told a billion times I exaggerate too much, but check this out.

The radiator on the left is what should be in there. Ok... maybe I exaggerated a little, it's not quite twice the size.  Well, excuuuuuuuuse meeeeee.....

Unfortunately, they had to alter the engine bay a bit to fit that monstrosity in, here's the result.

Nice....  so looks like I've got a bit of patching to do.  You notice the plate of scrap metal sitting on top of the platform in the 2nd photo?  That's what's left of the old battery tray.  Why unbolt it when you can slice it off and hammer it back out of the way?

Oh, did I mention the custom battery tray they replaced it with?

That is a piece of plywood held up by two shelf brackets... I kid you not.  You can see some rust bubbling up above the tray (battery acid), so that's going to have to be cleaned up.

Anyway, talking to the experts at Caloundra Brake and Clutch, it would be much easier to do all these renovations if the engine was not in the way.  So although redoing the engine bay was low on the to-do list, I've gone this far so I might as well bite the bullet and just get it out of the way...

So stay tuned for our next exciting episode when I attempt to dismantle the engine.  What could go wrong?