Engine Compartment Detailing Complete

[benm78]

I got ambitious one night, got tired of looking at the POs "paint rebuild" overspray and the years of evidence of leaky valve covers..... The truck had four different colors of "Ford Blue" on the engine, which was also rather annoying. Everything that could, went to sandblast, everything else was wire wheeled, degreased and then rubbed down with laquer thinner. The only parts not removed from the engine compartment were the manifolds (int/exh), heads, block & pan...... TONS of masking tape & paper to keep the overspray under control...... I am pleased with the results, although it was nerve racking when I had all these parts spread across the garage floor....

Hopefully these are of use for somebody.

Also - I'm looking for a new 360/390 harmonic balancer..lemme know if anyone has one or comes across one for a fair price...lesson was learned on how NOT to remove it (the outer ring is no longer true with the inner hub).

Since I couldn't justify all this work just for paint, I replaced the original timing chain/gears while I had the front cover off.....

ENJOY!










-Ben

[AK F100]

NICE JOB!!!! Looks great.

[dablack00]

Beautiful work. Very nice. I'm such a nut or originality that I wouldn't have used the silver paint on the natual parts, but that is just me. The way you did it looks great!

[towtruckerfour]

Holy crap that looks good. Wish mine looked like that.

[benm78]

I agree with the silver paint on natural parts.....I couldn't find natural color header paint and I just got lazy on a couple other pieces....plus I had to have it together for the "Dream Cruise" weekend here in metro-Detroit and I was running our of time.

Cleaning up the silver parts to be natural again will be next spring's project....!

[benm78]

Maybe I could just rub-down the silver parts with some motor oil to make them look more natural.....hmmmmmm...........that might smoke a bit for a while.....

[sideoilerfe]

That looks great. Excellent job man. I recently did the air cleaner on mine and now it looks to good to put it back on the truck!

[FLATBEDFORD]

[fitzwell]

Outstanding work..

Note to self. Never post under hood pics of my pos again

[dablack00]

I agree with the silver paint on natural parts.....I couldn't find natural color header paint and I just got lazy on a couple other pieces....plus I had to have it together for the "Dream Cruise" weekend here in metro-Detroit and I was running our of time.

Cleaning up the silver parts to be natural again will be next spring's project....!

Your hood hinges and master cylinder look great! What did you do for them.

If you want to ask the pros how to do it right, go over to vintage mustang forum and go on the conours forum. Those guys do it right! Really though, I don't think you could do the oil thing with the manifolds, but I bet you could with the other stuff. Lots of guys will blast something and then use wd40. Just spray it on a rag and touch up the parts everyonce in a while. For the tailgate latch and linkages I just blasted, I'm just keeping them wiped down with used motor oil. I'm going to try and keep up with it and see how they look in a year. If they look good then I will do some more parts under the hood.

Austin

[Calvin Gunter]

Truely a work of art Ben,What brand and color blue did you use? Got anymore pics. of the rest of the truck?Great job,Calvin

[convincor]

looks fantastic!!!
BTW, as no one else posted a source for the balancer, here you go-
http://www.damperdoctor.com/Merchant2/m ... y_Code=FOR

[papabug71]

Man that looks awsome! I love that you even put all the tags & decals back on it (valve covers, fan ect.).

Im hoping to get mine looking that good this winter.

Very nice work!

[benm78]

dablack - hood hinges were sprayed a flat gray color by the previous owner, they've had time to age themselves since then so they look more original now.....the master cylinder was wire wheeled then coated in clear enamel, same goes for the distributor, fuel line, top of the steering gear, front of the steering pump, fan clutch, starter solenoid and horn relay, the "fine" wire wheel was really soft acting on most parts and I was pleased with how it removed age but didn't grind or remove metal too harshly. I'm going to definitely try some motor oil / WD40 on everything that I painted bright silver, except the manifolds.....

Calvin - I'll post some pics of the rest of the truck shortly....I had them out there a few years back, right after some guys on the forum helped with the original purchase, but they've since been removed I guess. That was Dupli-color DE 1621 "Old Ford Blue", after the research I did on the web it seemed consensus that this was the acceptable reproduction of the original Ford blue for this year.

convicor - thanks for the tip on the balancer.....

-Ben

[OldRedFord]

Man that looks sweet. Good job!