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February 1 |
The 69 Adventure
Chapter 12 – The Engine
February started off with us working on the engine. The weather was holding out and working in the garage wasn't really uncomfortable with a heavy flannel or sweatshirt. On occassion, the propane heater was fired-up to add some warmth, but amazingly, there was almost no snow. What snow we did get, seemed to time itself right! We could relax, watching a movie and the snow outside. It never held us up!
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| By the end of the first week of the month, Jase was starting to put the engine pieces together, We'd get a box of some little part and as if by instinct, he knew where it went and the correct way of putting it on! He knew how hard to turn and when to use a tube off goop, lubricant, or lock-tite. |  |
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| In spite of all the work we were doing, we were really
having a blast. Jase has the patience of a saint and was constantly
explaining why he was doing whatever. With 8 cylinders, he always
let me do 4 (or half) of whatever we were doing), so I had the hands on as
well as the theory. I still don't understand how he just knows
what to do when, and why.
And still the weather held. We were bar-b-q-ing on Feb 9, making "Allen's famous brutwurst" and posting pics to bust his chops! I was still taking pictures constantly. I think that was the biggest annoyance to Kat & Jase! |
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| On days when I wasn't home to help or see what was going on, Jase would take pictures of what he did and I never felt left out. When there was somrthing I wasn't sure about, I never felt hesitant about asking, even if I knew it was a dumb question. |  |
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| By the middle of the month, the heads had arrived and we kept putting the contents of all these boxes together. Each piece had a place and it was like assembling a giant 3-D picture puzzle, except I didn't have the picture on the boxtop to follow! Jase did though J and I just kept listening, learning, and following his lead. |
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| One of the most creative things we did was powdercoating. Jase had been a bit reluctant to order the kit, since we didn't know how much use we'd get out of it. It hooked right up to his compressor and truly was fun. I got to spray and 'hold' the button' ! We had been looking for an old electric oven to us for some time, but after a few weekends of garage-saling with no luck, we opted to use the one in my kitchen. The only fumes were from the used valve covers! |  |
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Below is the order we used to get the green over chrome:
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| Valve covers cleaned up to powdercoat. | Top cover is sprayed with chrome powder | After baking the chrome | ||||
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| After baking the chrome | After baking the green color over the chrome. | |||||
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We kept putting more parts on what was already assembled on the engine stand and it started to really look like an engine (at least to me). In less than 6 weeks, we had gone from a mountain of parts to a very pretty engine!
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