So, things have been a bit slow on the car front for any number of reasons.
Jumping ahead to a question so it's not buried in a long post:
For the LNF guys that have, how have you removed this SS braided line? I see it's a push lock line just like a fuel line. However, with the valve cover itself in the way how are you ever expected to remove it without destructive means?? Maybe I'm missing something.
I've continued cleanup of parts a bit here and there. This includes going over the entire frame with red scotch brite as I had a decent bit of rust developing, I believe much of this is attributed to delivery on a rainy weekend. This was a rather time consuming task in itself.
I have an old friend who's a fabricator that's going to help me with a few small welding jobs on the frame. At the moment I'm just planning on welding in square M4 nuts for the tunnel cover and a series of tabs for screwing on the side panels with M6 screws and fender washers as I want the panels to be easily removable and want to minimize holes added to the tube frame itself. I haven't determined any other welding I know for a fact that I plan to do.
I still haven't refined or arranged a plan for coating the frame, but I'm starting to lean more towards powder coating due to lack of resources to paint or coat the frame myself. The logistics of doing it properly myself don't appear to be panning out. I've had POR15 in mind if I was going to tackle the coating on my own.
I've also been gradually stripping down the engine in order to walnut blast. I'm taking pictures along the way to make reassembly easier and making a list of components I need to buy. I know I will be performing the timing service that gets mentioned here frequently, including the new bolt that tends to shear off (if I'm remembering the failure mode correctly).
Lastly I've 'built' a blast booth of sorts using some clear plastic to help contain the media and dust. I have a window screen that I'm using to sift the material before loading it back into the blaster. I'm using a fine walnut media for primarily blasting the engine, trans etc. I also plan on trying this on the frame to see if I can get a fine yet uniform texture on the frame, though it may require a more aggressive media to get any results on steel. I'm expecting/hoping the time spent prepping the frame will save me on the coating end. A large portion of the work is in the pre coating prep depending on the coater and how thorough they are. They should just have to do a final clean prior to coating ideally.