So since I'm in my very own financial sequestration, unable to afford new components or make forward progress on this engine, I must make progress on other items that require effort, but not money.
I know that goes completely against my plan of 'work on things in a rigid order' but what the hell; I'll just be sitting around watching the grass grow if I don't do something else.
So I did something else: Refinishing engine components and accessories. Any time that you're using paint, primer, epoxy, etc. you must do so within a very narrow range of temperature for curing. If you try to use self-etching primer in 40°F weather, you'll just make a mess. If you try to keep your garage warm with a space heater while spraying this stuff, you're likely to blow your dumb, flammable ass up. Even if you were to heat the room up, and then shut off the flame before you sprayed, the temperature would plunge too quickly to allow the paint to cure well. My Mrs. is also unlikely to appreciate the decorative effects of engine parts hanging throughout the house while they cure. So I'd best redeem the time and get the refinishing done while the weather is still warm and I can use the large pine tree in my back yard as my spray and cure rack. Engine assembly can wait for the cold.
I took an entire day to sand, scrubb, and make copious use of phosphoric acid to cook surface rust off of several components, including the heat exchangers. I had also purchased a gallon of carb cleaner dip, perfect for de-gunking small components like bolts, handles, and other fasteners which were getting their first cleaning in 40 years.
Between it all, I refinished the engine hatch (a cosmetic matter, but it lifted my spirits,) the intake manifolds, and both heat exchangers. The intake manifolds should be some precise VW color. Nuts. I have what paint I have. The best color I had was flat metal grey caliper paint. Guess what went on the intake runners.
Oh yea! I'm doing crazy, non-stock stuff like.....weird PAINT! (For those who don't know, my 1972 Super Beetle restoration was the picture of OCD "do it right or go to hell" precision that required exacting paint color matching on items like the oil filter....which wouldn't filter oil one bit better for being coated in Glasurit L43 Grau-Schwarz (Grey-Black.)
Please. I've learned my lesson. I'm painting this with what I have, but I'm not so blasé that I would intentionally make my work ugly. The Intake manifolds in flat silver (a very unique flat silver, not at all like semi-gloss Argent Silver used on the wheels) plugging into the central intake manifold which will be painted Gloss Black will look quite fetching, without looking either like a stock Nazi saluted it with a paint can, or (in the case of customizers who go wild with the color of engine parts) like a clown threw up Fruitloops on it either.
The heat exchangers got acid stripped to bare metal, and then coated with high temp primer, which should make them more durable and buy me longer running on that set than I should otherwise expect to experience. I'm still going to have to figure out a way to get their temperature up to 350°F and then 500°F to cure the paint, but I know that I'm not using my the kitchen oven. Not unless I want to die an early death by spousicide.
Having mentioned my intent to gloss paint the central intake plenum (the most visible part of the fuel injection system when viewed from either the rear engine hatch or the overhead engine hatch in the cargo area) I must say that I knew this would take a lot more effort than the usual sand and squirt. The inside had been imperfectly degreased six months ago, so I opened up my media blasting cabinet (unused for 9 months) and after a few quick connections and some new aluminum oxide in the hopper, I didn't even both with cleaning up the existing surface of the plenum: I just blasted it all off. Rust, paint, corrosion, and gunk on the inside and out, all gone. Virgin steel with some tooth to it. I then sprayed that with self etching primer and left that to cure. I'll probably do three light coats of gloss black on it and then (don't laugh) wax it to protect the finish and the fittings. Once reinstalled, there won't hardly be space to swing a Q-tip, so I have to dandy it up now.
All in all, a tolerable use of time.
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