For the past couple of weeks I’ve had “mask and paint Thunderbird engine bay” on my to-do list, so yesterday I spent the entire afternoon . . . tidying up the garage.
Since reinstalling the timing cover some weeks back, it seemed like the engine was close enough to done to think about engine bay prep. Once I cleared the cobwebs out of the garage, I could see that thought was a little premature. I had set up a makeshift workbench when this project began, just some plywood scraps on two sawhorses. On top were some mislaid tools (“Oh, that’s where that socket is!) and miscellaneous motor parts. Underneath were accessories like the alternator, fan shroud, etc.
I cleared off the top of the bench by reinstalling the harmonic balancer, fuel pump and oil filter adapter. While I was at it, I gave the engine a spin just to reassure myself that all was still well inside. (If I can acquire an oil filter and oil, I can pre-oil the internals, which would feel even better.)
With the engine pretty much assembled, I took down the temporary bench and moved all the remaining parts to the bench in my main workshop. They will be a real nuisance there (and hopefully a spur to pick up the pace). In the now clean garage, I pushed the motor into a corner and put my wife’s car in there.
With the light fading and cocktail hour approaching, I pulled the cover off the ‘Bird just to assess the work needed for masking and painting. I pulled off the heater hoses and the vacuum lines at the brake booster, then removed the throttle linkage (finding it hard to believe that I was still doing disassembly). There are a lot of nooks and crannies on the firewall and painting it with major components in place won’t be perfect, but still worth doing.
My plan had been to paint the firewall black and touch up the white around the rest of the bay. However, this car needs to get back on the road, so I’ll forgo the body color paint. To do that job properly, the engine bay really needs to be stripped bare, and at the rate I’m going, that could add months to an already-too-long project.
The forecast this week is sunny and hot with windy afternoons, so I’ll be masking when it’s not too hot and painting when I can find a warm, windless morning.