The battery shelf was getting corroded. I painted it once before but water, road salt and battery fumes take their toll and it was rusting again. I decided intervention was a good idea, rather than let the batteries fall out someday.

Ground the rust away. I put a thin layer of epoxy and fiberglass on the shelf. Waterproof, saltproof and acid proof. Just got it painted today. Coach batteries go back in tomorrow.

I was painting the battery shelf and I got carried away. The poor old Cummins runs so well it never gets any attention so I spent some time back there. Long overdue. More to paint yet but better now.

That looks really nice

As part of the job of changing the intake manifold and camshaft, some paint work has been done as well.


Matt

Beautiful work, Matt!! I am not sure I am fond of your color choice though, it is great to see a clean engine, sets the stage for someone to be assured any other work is going to done just as well.

Man those are pretty

Duane88! I have to admit, my color choices shocked me too! I've probably gone through a case of "Chevrolet Orange" in the past, on other engines... My Barth is painted two tones of blue, and I thought I wanted my 454 engine to be blue as well. But in checking the colors, all the blue engine paints are described as "Ford Blue". That would be a sin, or just plain wrong, and would clearly be bad juju. So I started looking at nearby colors, and "Torque Teal" sounded appealing. From a functional standpoint, besides protecting the metal from rust damage, the paint is also there to help highlight leaks and make maintenance more readily managed.

When Chevrolet decided to paint the engines black, I imagine that this was a business decision, to help hide oil leaks from the customers.

And to contrast the "Torque Teal", I went with "Daytona Yellow". There's some black paint and aluminum paint colors as well there.

I reused the timing cover bolts, but there are many bolts I am replacing along the way of this as well. Every hose clamp I am encountering is replaced, along with the hoses.

I always like to think that my Barth is my happy place, and now "Torque Teal" and "Daytona Yellow" are my happy colors.

In the top photo, you can see the new fuel line I put in. That is probably $5 of line and 2 hours of bending it and fitting it and bending it and fitting it, and flaring the ends. And that line is then painted in the aluminum color to help protect against rust, and to help show if there are any fuel leaks.

Many hours were spent with degreasers and wire wheels and wire brushes to prepare the surfaces for primer and paint.

I can't wait to fire it up!
Matt

I repeat, beautiful work, would love to have your attention to detail! A Ford color would be a sin!!

Speaking of that fuel line, there are many vapor lock discussion on here and one point that worries me is that particular line it runs so close to the block. Have you any opinion?

Nice work.

They used to paint MOPAR engines a similar color, a bit momre green and darker! I think you are right about black paint. Worst possible color for an engine. When I got the crate 454HO it was black and barely painted. Back side toward flywheel was rusty on the brand new engine. Front seal leaked, one of the dual valve springs was broken and it needed valves reground within 12,000 miles due to insufficient rocker arm clearance. Not a fan of GM any more...

If you want the job done right...

Duane88 & SteveVW, thanks for the positive feedback...

Regarding the fuel line, I did think about "relocating it" in order to minimize heat transfer. The choices for positioning it, are (1) the stock position behind the water pump, (2) underneath the alternator position, and (3) to the rear of the block and up the back.

What I didn't like about (2) was that it would move the fuel line closer to the #2 exhaust position, and under the alternator, and both of those lead to the question "what could possibly go wrong?" What I didn't like about (3) was to have to thread a fuel line between the starter and exhaust, or create a longer circuitous route along the frame and then up to the back of the engine and both ideas would double or triple the length of the line and increase the amount of heat transfer to the fuel.

A reason that bending the tube took so long is that I did not want the tube to touch the block, the waterpump, the timing cover or the intake manifold. It is going to be only touched by the engine compartment air on the path it takes, and that air will be less hot than the radiator. If there is a fuel leak, it won't be near the exhaust. I have seen in the hot rodder magazines that sometimes racers will put a layer of foil over this tube, to reduce heat transfer to the fuel.

Happy Motoring!
Matt

PS: by the way SteveVW, I love your battery tray. I need to follow your lead on this!