In preparation for painting the motor I revisited the fitting of all the parts that would be on the block as it’s painted. I wanted to make double sure that everything would bolt and fit as it was intended. I’m glad I did. At each exhaust manifold there was one bolt that couldn’t be installed due to the holes being off a tad… very frustrating. All was ok after drilling out the offending holes. Now that the manifolds were on officially with all bolts, I checked the heat tube at the rear again. I know I thought if fit "good enough" before but I must have really put it in a bind the previous fitting. This time around the holes at the intake were off by a good ¼". I couldn’t see bending this stout piece of steel to fit so my plan was a bit more drastic. It looked to me like the thing was made ¼" too long so it made sense to just cut and shorten it by ¼". This was a snap. I cut it on a section that was parallel with the direction it needed to be shortened, cut out a ¼", bolted each half to their respective mounting spots and welded the two halves back together. The final part was a near perfect fit and had no feel of binding. Since the welded splice is buried behind the motor once in the car, I didn’t bother too much with making it pretty.

Another extra bracket that needed to be bought was a strap that holds the positive battery cable up off the exhaust on the driver’s side. Mark it down as bought and installed.

I don’t remember if I mentioned the issue with the glove box lock as I was assembling the dash. I know I could read back to see, but, whatever… here’s what I had to do to get this fixed. I had several glove box doors with nice shiny locks but not one key to fit any of them. My search for new locks and keys netted me nothing so I took a door with a lock to a local locksmith. They were able to make me a key to fit the lock I brought in. I was hoping they could then cut the lock to fit the trunk key for the car but it turns out that the glove box locks are a sealed type and the guy said it couldn’t be done. Oh well, I’m not complaining… I have a working lock with a key, all installed.

While surfing eBay I ran across an NOS "key-in" buzzer for a '70 b-body.  I didn't have one and it was one of just a few parts left to finish the dash.

Another thing that's been gnawing at me was the set of sunvisors I had bought to use. They have these indentions from like a glasses case in them. I was sure it would pop out with time but no, it hasn't. The original visors were one of the few interior items that were still in the car. However, like everything else, they had a nasty coat of black spray can paint covering them. Just for giggles I thought I'd see what would happen if I tried to get the paint off of them... it certainly couldn't make them any worse. At first I was very careful with this high powered cleaner by cleaning a small area and washing it off real quick. It indeed took the black paint off and left a beautiful blue vinyl visor showing from underneath. The cleaner didn't seem to be affecting the vinyl in the least so I got a bit bolder and bolder until I was spraying the whole ting down, scrubbing with a toothbrush and taking my sweet time at that. These things came out fantastic. I think they had been covered with the paint since the early '70s. I suppose over time the paint had lost it's grip all while kinda protecting the vinyl. Whatever the case, I had a gorgeous set of correct colored sunvisors.

The last remaining item for the motor is the heat riser "mechanicals" that are assembled at the passenger side exhaust manifold. I knew that when I ordered my manifolds that I had paid the extra for the manifolds and the heat riser parts. As I was looking for the extra parts it dawned on me that they had not sent them. Now we’re talking about an order that was placed in 2002… this is 2005! I looked in the catalog to see how much the extra parts would set me back… OVER $300! Yikes! All I could do was present my case to the Year One sales guy and hope for the best. He looked up the order and verified that I did indeed order the manifolds… however, he started this yarn about how the extra parts were never meant to be included with the manifolds. I beg to differ. The wording is clear that all parts are included at the extra price. He really didn’t argue with me. I believe strongly that this issue has come up MANY times… maybe not 3 years later but many times. So without any real hesitation, he said he would send me the parts I needed as soon as they got some in, for free. I was extremely happy. Year One is a great supplier and has always done me right… no matter how big or small the issue has been. The parts came in about 2 weeks later.