[72K5CSTDarkOlive]

I had change of heart with the look of the engine I was originally going for. Call me ANAL… All my friends and brother already gave me the nickname and bust my balls for all the “unnecessary extra work” I do, but hey, maybe they are right, but it’s my truck and I’ll do what I want.

I started out first with a vision in my head of the look I wanted and I am so happy with how it turned out, just the way I envisioned it. I really wanted the motor to look like it was custom built, which it is, but lacked the looked. I painted the cylinder head bolts aluminum to make it stand out with the orange paint on the block and heads. I then chemically stripped the paint from the air cleaner and valve covers using Jasco Paint remover. I suggest wearing a respirator, chemical resistant gloves, and glasses when using this stuff.

I went into a local auto parts store to pick up engine enamel paint and I was going to use a satin / matte black finish. I accidently read the label wrong and ended up buying this Black Wrinkle Plus by VHT. I searched the web to see what this stuff looks like and I didn’t see to many older cars with this type of paint applied to engine parts.. Mostly found on newer cars. Anyways, I thought it looked pretty good, but I wasn’t sure how it would turn out so I practiced on a few pieces.

The first thing I did was to make sure I was working with bare metal and clean parts. The second part that I think helps in the process is using a heat gun to warm up the part and soak the paint can in warm water for about 10 minutes. The instructions say to spray in 3 sequences 5 minutes apart; horizontally, vertically, and finish with a cross pattern.. To give it that extra texture and to cure the paint, I then baked the parts in the oven for an hour at 200 degrees. The baking part make a big difference in the overall outcome.

The Air cleaner was the hardest part. As you can see in the pics there was a lot of masking involved and penitence!!