Now it is time for the big items and the short block has been moved onto the stand I use for painting. This view is Bottom Up for the reason that the cam gear projects below the block and it is never to support the weight of the engine. After this side is all masked off I will turn it over and use a couple of wooden blocks to protect the gear. The prop hub (golden part on Right) will have to come off to facilitate the painting and to be painted as well. The starter ring gear has to be attached to the back of the hub anyway so it comes off sooner or later. This hub incorporates the pulley for a front mounted 20 amp alternator into its design. The previous incarnaqtion (the so called Black Hub) did not so it required a separate piece plus the "Puck" that was mounted behind the ring gear. As seen here the studs that attach the cylinders are a little rusty (they are Steel, not Aluminum) so they will need a little scotch bright before painting and the threads need to be chased as well to ensure that the head attach H/W can be torqued accurately.
For the painting I made plugs for the cylinder holes out of a cardboard box using a cylinder as a template. The Pushrod holes were plugged with rolled up paper towl, crude but effective. Both cylinder and pushrod holes will be cleaned with MEK after the paint dries to ensure there is no unwanted overspray. The rear case had been painted separately but was mounted during the case painting to provide a natural masking of its outline. The Head Studs do not have their threads masked at this time so that they can be as throughly painted as possible. When done with the paint the threads are due for cleaning and chasing with a 3/8-24 die so they can be torqued accurately on assembly.
