1973 Plymouth ‘Cuda Engine Bay Resto Thread at V8 Speed & Resto Shop

Qball wrote:

oestek wrote: The 340 was pulled from the ‘Cuda’s nose and put on a stand for evaluation. It looked OK on the top side, but years of leaks and heat cycling really took a toll on everything below the valve covers.

The rear plugs were seeping a bit.

The distributor gasket was leaking as well.

The exhaust manifolds were correct, but looked pretty rough. The heat shield was surprisingly complete, but also kind of crisp.

’’

Motor mounts were a bit greasy.

Just a bit.


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Yes, but it makes the transformation more dramatic!

As pieces were removed from the engine, their condition was recorded, along with all the fasteners and clips, etc.     The exhaust manifolds were next to come off.











These will be media blasted and ceramic coated in a cast iron gray tone.   





Gotta love original date coded parts!







We think they came out beautifully.

With the engine out of the car, it was time to finish removing all the engine bay accessories and to clean and assess the engine bay.









The outside of the car was protected so that it wouldn’t get dirty or scratched as the engine bay work progressed. We use 3M weld & spark protection paper as well as traditional 3M masking tape and paper for this purpose.

Once the bay had been degreased, we noticed some rusty areas and paint bubbling.







This spot was of particular concern, as it is where the hood hinge attaches to the inner apron.





You usually find more ugly spots the closer you look, but they all need to be repaired.





The repair work begins with some careful paint stripping.

This car revealed rusty thin spots behind both hood hinges, so the offending areas were cut out and new pieces were made to return the strength to the inner aprons.









There were several other thin spots in the metal, and more patches were made.

We don’t like to leave bare steel open to corrode, so the the underhood area were sanded, cleaned, masked, and sprayed with epoxy primer.









Once all the metalwork was completed, the bare areas were re-epoxied and prepped for color.





The original B5 blue color was mixed in 2-stage urethane, and the car was masked again. The underhood area was sprayed in Axalta base coat and clear.