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Ahhhhhhhh.....progress. Feels good.

I'm on vacation this week (staycation, I hate that word) so I've been putzing in the garage most of the week. I took the heads, valve covers, valley cover, oil pan, intake, and rockers to the machine shop on Monday. They told me they had to boil the parts twice to get the sludge off...I'm not surprised.

Good news - I knew at least one exhaust valve was bad, so I was prepared for a whole laundry list of crap to be wrong with the heads. He called yesterday and told me everything was pristine with the exception of the one valve. He also said this is the nicest set of nailhead heads he's seen go through that shop. I reminded him of Hank's 401 heads that needed a boatload of work, and those were supposed to be good running heads. I called Jeff at CARS and he overnighted a valve. I wanted them done this week so I could pick them up today. Once I go back to work, it would be virtually impossible for me to get back there in good time. Hindsight says I should've just ordered the damn valve ahead of time.

Next on the list is engine disassembly, (is that a word?) then another mass purchase of engine parts. I know it's going to need to be bored, so new pistons and rings, rod and main bearings, cam bearings for sure. Gaskets...I only ordered a head gasket kit from CARS, so I'll need to get a timing cover gasket, front and rear main seals...etc. I already have an oil pan gasket and freeze plugs. Oh yeah, oil pump kit...

I'll still need to have the exhaust manifolds milled flat and cleaned up. That's $85 each.

I'm glad I love this hobby.

Great to see new photos and read about progress !!

Looking good !! keep it up

Looks great!! Keep up the good work to get another B58 back on the road again.

The block is completely disassembled now. All pistons look good, but I'm still unsure of the possibility of having the bore the block to get rid of the ridges. I will need to bring it to the machine shop sometime (whenever I can find time, ha!) and see what he says. All the rod and main bearings looked decent with only some minor scratches and wear. With the exception of the ridge in the cylinders and the horrid sludge, this engine was in good shape. I was halfway tempted to just put it back together when I checked out all the bearings. But I have to keep torturing myself somehow...

Crank looks good.

I started to clean up a couple things that came off the engine tonight, but ran out of steam about an hour into it. The downdraft tube and steel vacuum line from the oil pump are clean and painted.

I drove the Centurion for the first time in a few weeks today, and it felt good! I've been working on the paint of my daily driver 95 Yukon (black!)...looks like a brand new truck again. I had to give the Smartin touch to the paint. It was looking sad after 15 years of scratches and bumps.

Do you do house calls?

I have 6 cars that could use the Smartin treatment!

Free room, board and beer!

It's only a 6 hour drive to my house, Brian...easy Saturday drive for a truck and trailer dragging one of them

The block is at the machine shop waiting for some cleanup and a hone. I have cleaned up all of the other engine parts and am almost ready for reassembly. I've ordered all parts necessary to complete the engine and transmission and get it installed in the chassis, so I'm just waiting at this point...for the machine shop, as well as all of the parts to come to the shop.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I took a bunch of the front end sheet metal (wheel houses, splash pan, fan shroud, etc) to the blaster today...I envision some major metal patching in my near future. A couple of those pieces are pretty eaten up.

I found a good match to the metallic blue in the interior parts. There are 2 shades, this is the darker one. I still need to find a match for the lighter shade. I shot paint on the lower steering column cover to see how it would turn out. I'm pleasantly surprised.

All of the relays were still attached to the front wheel house, so I had to pull all of those before I took them to the blaster today. I ended up cleaning and detailing all of them, as well as the clock, and hood latch.

Lots of random stuff done this week...

that metallic blue turned out really nicely!
what paint was it that you used? my interior has metallic blue as well, and some of it is in pretty sad shape...

It's Duplicolor Light Blue Metallic BGM0539

It is slightly more blue than the original color. Here is a photo of it compared to the original color dash. I will be painting all of the parts in the interior, so they will match.

thanks! its good to know there is a color that looks so similar.

I believe your Special might have a darker blue than my interior. I was looking at photos of a 58 wagon that has a blue interior, and it definitely is darker than the blue I have.

What I did to match mine, was to take one of the blue parts (the steering column cover) to the parts store and find several shades of blue that came close. I then took them home and sprayed them on a section of that part. The closest one was the blue I chose. There are 2 other blues in my interior. One is lighter, and the other is a non-metallic baby blue that is on the B pillar trim parts. Too many blues for one interior!

yeah, i should probably take a piece in to color-match just in case

First coat...fresh engine! I can't wait to bolt some parts to this guy!

MILESTONE REACHED!

looks GREAT!