After the paint was dry it was time to chase the threads on the steel studs that hold the heads to the block. These were contaminated with paint and had some rust on them so to be sure that the nuts could be torqued accurately they need to have the threads chased. When you have a forest of same length rods there is no way to get in with the usual holder for the die so I improvised and used a large set of vicegrips to do the turning. The threads were relatively clean so it did not require much effort. The matching hardware has had its threads checked as well so with a bit of ARP thread lube the torquing should go well.
In the second picture you see the engine case set to the side for a long term paint dry/cure cycle. In less then a week this will be a running engine, no longer a collection of parts.