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11/04/20: Over the past few days, I’ve been prepping the engine for paint. The instructions with Bill Hirsch engine paint are specific. The first is it must be above 60 degrees to paint. The second is that you must let it cure for two weeks before firing it up, which should not be a problem, but the first definitely is. Living in northern NY where the average daytime temperatures lately, have been in the 40’s certainly presents its challenges. Fortunately we have a warm spell coming up starting today for about a week where the average daytime temperature will be in the mid 60’s so I was able to paint. I did a trial run on the bell housing a couple of days ago with a brush. I pre heated the housing by placing it in front of a radiant propane heater for a couple of hours to get the temperature around 80 degrees. After painting, I placed it back in front of the heater to help it dry. It took several hours but did finally dry to the touch, so I moved to my basement to let it finish curing. It turned out great, so I have high hopes for the engine. The real difference is I can’t transport my engine to the basement but will have to provide heat in the shop for a few days.

Even though the outside tempertures were above 60, I still needed to pre heat the engine. My garage is built into a bank so It stays cool. The temperature of the garage and the engine was only about 50 degrees. It was warmer outside than it was in the garage so first I opened all of the doors and windows then I pre heated the engine for a couple of hours to about 75 degrees with my radiant heater. It took about 2 hours and I rotated the engine to get all sides.

This time I used my old Husky HVLP spray gun. I only mixed one pint of paint and used only about half of that. When I sprayed it, it appeared to spray a bit dry and I did mix it according to the instructions. I tried different pressures but it did not help. I’m hoping it will flatten out because of how slow it dries. Overall I think it came out pretty good.

On my way to shiny!