My '74 Midget has been sitting idle for about 4 years now, and I recently started the "reawakening" process with it. While I'm at it, I'm rebuilding the front suspension & front brakes with rebuilt kits, etc. Step one has been to get it actually running again and so I'm working under the hood. And while I'm in there, cleaning up.
The PO of this car had the engine compartment painted, and it was a cheap job - as in basically everything (minus wires, etc.) got painted. Including the brake lines, screw heads, and anything else basically metal. Sames goes with the engine, which is all red (nuts, bolts and all).
So as I'm cleaning up, I'm wondering, "Just what needs to be painted?" I've removed the thermostat cover for example, which has a mediocre amount of paint on it, and I'm wondering if I can just get it sandblasted clean and left bare metal for example. Or the solid brake lines (aluminum?) - just remove the already flaking old paint with some fine grit paper and let them stand out in nice contrast to the black interior? Or the starter, which had another mediocre paint job that's about all flaked off. Strip and leave bright?
Thoughts?
The PO of this car had the engine compartment painted, and it was a cheap job - as in basically everything (minus wires, etc.) got painted. Including the brake lines, screw heads, and anything else basically metal. Sames goes with the engine, which is all red (nuts, bolts and all).
So as I'm cleaning up, I'm wondering, "Just what needs to be painted?" I've removed the thermostat cover for example, which has a mediocre amount of paint on it, and I'm wondering if I can just get it sandblasted clean and left bare metal for example. Or the solid brake lines (aluminum?) - just remove the already flaking old paint with some fine grit paper and let them stand out in nice contrast to the black interior? Or the starter, which had another mediocre paint job that's about all flaked off. Strip and leave bright?
Thoughts?