Last night was great - worked in the Taj Mahal of garages on my 1275
rebuild. It was 101 in Melbourne, FL yesterday, but 80 in my buddy's air
conditioned 3.5 car palace. Plus the kids were in the swimming pool while
the wives barbequed. I'm told not all rebuilds are this painless. BTW,
oil gallery plugs needed a 1/2 inch pipe thread tap. The point:
In my quest to for the most time consuming reuild in history, everything
(nuts, bolts, brackets, etc) was washed in a parts washer, dried with
compressed air, and cleaned on a wire wheel prior to painting (DelStar
Healey Engine Olive Drab). We have tried many solvents (kerosene, mineral
spirits, etc.) and have found all of them to be really tough on the
sinuses. Right now, we're using "Odorless Mineral Spirits, which means
what you can't smell is hurting you a whole lot (so far each night of parts
cleaning has been followed by psychedelic dreams filled with Jerry Garcia
music and Goldy Hawn in body paint, but I'm pretty sure the better the
dream, the less brain cells have survived). Does anyone have any
recommendations? The parts washer is a large 20 gallon model, and we
looked into a service (Safe-T-Kleen or something) that comes several times
a year to change fluids, but it was hundreds of dollars. I don't want
anything water based like Simple Green since stuff that isn't wire brushed
will corrode.
Thanks,
Ron
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