I've never heard of Plum Crazy Purple until you mentioned it but it does seem to have a lot of metal flake. It is tough to spray metal flake and get it even. It can't run even a little. You did good. You are making me jealous though, I wish I had the energy to make this engine look that good. I think you are smart to do it when you are doing the other repairs though.

This was my first job with metal flake paint and it turned out. Good thing you can't see the first coat though. I was learning.

I did it at night and I have 2 garages about 25 feet apart with motion lights outside the main garage. After I was done painting and for the next hour or so there was metal flake in the air. I had both doors on the garage open to air it out. It was pretty disturbing since we weren't wearing masks. You could catch a glimmer of the flakes just looking into the air. I didn't realize that so much was overspray or how long it could linger for. Nor did I realize that the metal flake could go airborne and swirl around the same general area for an hour. My voice is raspy today, probably due to inhaling that stuff. Keep it up and show us the pictures. I like seeing what others are doing to their trucks. (though it probably causes me to have more projects)

 

It is only a Mopar color and I feel in love with it the first time I saw it on my dad's old car. Metal flake is the hardest paint especially lighter colors like silver. My dad taught me how to paint but I did a lot of sanding when I first started, I had a problem with running the paint. I decided to do it for three reasons one to help the appearance, two got tired of everything I touch being greasy, and three to find leaks better. Practice makes perfect so you'll learn with time. Now as the pictures I will post them and have to take some of the complete project. I wish you could see more but that big air cleaner blocks a lot.

 

A075V080-1230HORSE POWER7.5VOLTS208/230PUMP RPM649CFM@175 PSI24WEIGHT555TANK80 GALLONDIMENSIONS35″ X 24″ X 73″STARTERMAGNETIC STARTERINSTALL KITINSTALL-80VWARRANTY KITAX-W95

I bought one of these 5 years or so ago. I don't know what you all want to run, but clean dry air is important. Make sure you have enough electrical service to run the compressor you choose. Your typical CFM rating on an air tool is an average for an 8 hour shift. If you want to run something continuously, ( maybe a die grinder) the rule of thumb is the compressor CFM should be triple the tool rating. If that die grinder is rated at 4 CFM, your compressor needs to put out 12 to run it continuously. I knew I'd be getting some large air tools and a sand blaster so I bought a high volume compressor. C-Aire makes great compressors, you shouldn't wear one out in a home shop. A trick to cheat a bit with a smaller compressor is to buy a new 100# LP gas cylinder and connect it to add volume to your system. I found the air tool CFM information in the Landmesser Tools catalog.

 

You also need a water extractor to get rid of the water. I have one. I bought mine (350 gallon tank it's an industrial model) for $140 at an auction. It's old but still works!

 

definitely important to have a water trap and drain moisture out of the tank regularly especially if it gets really humid where you live or where the compressor is sitting. mine stays in the basement and it stays pretty dry down there so i am pretty lucky. i didn't do much research before buying my compressor but have been pretty lucky and bought myself a good compressor brand new. picked it up on sale new for $508 all in about 8 years ago. in my opinion it has paid for itself many times over by this point. they are a good investment if you use them enough. this is the one i have https://www.aircompressorsdirect.com...sor/p5489.html

as far as painting goes tho i don't think you need quite this large of a compressor to get a good paint job but you definitely need something a couple steps up from one of them pancake compressors. the HVLP guns are suppose to work pretty good with lower pressure. i think that is what i used and it sprayed really nice when i was painting the 1 fender on my vehicle.

ya that was part of the reason i painted the engine on my 81. i still get a tiny bit dirty while working on it but no where near as dirty as i use to. plus clean painted surfaces tend to be easier to wash than non painted surfaces. every time i fix something i usually end up painting a tiny bit more

the engine and parts are looking pretty good

 

Thanks I appreciate it! I wiped down all the hoses and wire looms the best I could. Now when I remove something it will get cleaned and painted. I have such a big compressor because I have a 3 way on it. So you can run 3 air hoses off of it. I got tiedt of switching lines. Lol

 

We absolutely want to see the finished product!

 

Here it is! Going to redo the cowl and clear it (I got fish eyes and tiger stripes in it from rushing). Also going to get a good air intake and reroute some things so you can actually see the intake manifold. But for a rush job it didn't turn out bad! I shot the valve covers in a cheap gloss black and didn't like the result, but I plan on getting a chrome set

 

That looks really good!!!!

 

Thanks man, I appreciate it! Would have liked to clear everything to make it shiny but it was a rush job.