I finally tracked down a can of Dolph's EB-41 black insulating varnish.  Red, green and clear are easy to find - but nobody carries the black.

I painted the alternator windings.  This should hold up better than black spray paint; this stuff is designed specifically to spray copper magnet wire windings.

Before:

After:

I stopped at the local Ace Hardware and they had Pony pinch clamps on sale for $1 each; made in USA!  They're the orange handled ones.

I went to the Iron City Bike Night last week in downtown Pittsburgh.

I only took two pictures, there were a lot of stock-ish Harley's but this cover stood out.

I went to the Starlite car cruise in Wexford, PA Friday night.  Of the ~2000 cars that attended, here are some highlights.

Viper ACR

Cool old pickup.  It would be cooler if it was ~12" lower.

I thought of Jason when I saw this mint old Omni!

Then I rounded the corner... and look what I found!

Billy's high school dream car.

I approached this from the side - two turbos!

Then I walked to the other side... FOUR TURBOZZZ!!!!

Badass Dodge dually.

Back to work.  I finished sanding the front engine crossmember, it's ready for primer.

I had a little bit of a scare this week, I noticed one of the scratches on my engine block looked a lot like a crack. 

I bought a dye penetrant test kit to check it out.

Let the penetrant soak in

Then wipe off the penetrant and spray it with developer.  If a crack is present, the penetrant will wick out of the crack and turn the developer red.

False alarm!  Tis but a scratch.

Here is what a real crack looks like.  I cracked the edge of this waterpump housing, around the hole.

I needed to make a bolt for the power steering pump pivot.  The OEM bolt is an M11 shoulder bolt, which isn't available in stainless steel to match all my other bolts.  I bought a larger bolt, turned it down, and re-threaded it to the smaller thread.

The kitties helped.

From left to right - the original steel bolt, the stainless bolt I started with, and the finished pivot bolt.

I turned a few more bolt heads for the alternator, A/C compressor, and power steering pump mounting brackets.

More supplies; mostly hardware.

I ordered some rubber caps for the coolant lines to seal the motor up for the next few months while I do bodywork on the car itself.

I replaced the screws in the A/C compressor with 12-point ARP stainless bolts. 

Here is the A/C clutch pulley winding before; nasty clear heat shrink over red wires

I cut all the heat shrink off and replaced it with Raychem DR-25 heat shrink, then sealed the end with Raychem HTAT glue-lined shrink.  It's not fully sealed, but will look and perform a lot better than the OEM setup.

The front half of the A/C compressor is all done, I'm still waiting for gaskets before I can re-install the correct rear half and fittings.

I assembled a few more things onto the engine.

I decided to take a break from the engine assembly to work on the body while I wait for more hardware and engine parts to ship.

Engine crossmember; slathered with mud

That all sanded down to this.  Maybe a little more than I hoped for, but it should be alright.

I painted some more parts tonight.

First, I stenciled two of the oil filters I painted silver this weekend.  Thanks to Vinny at www.1-signs.com

Teal

Removing the stencil. 

Clear!

Thermostat housing

Serpentine belt tensioner

Tensioner arm

Rear bearing housing/commutator cover for the alternator

Starter housing

Horn bracket and some random shift linkage bolt

The parts are starting to pile up!  Almost everything is painted, I need to order a few more fasteners then I can get it all assembled.