Underside

Life is looking pleasantly clean and dry under the car these days. Amazing what a few years of work will bring to a car. The body looks a bit crunchy, but then we all look a bit older after 50 some years.

Most of the effect on the car probably due to old undercoating and ancient fluid leaks, I suspect.

Not even any pesky leaks from those exhaust manifold studs!

Heat Shield: The Last Engine Bay Detail (for the moment)

I was getting tired of the modern, upgraded heat shield on the exhaust manifold that had been installed a few years ago. (You can see this heat shield in the engine bay picture from the last post.) So I resurrected the stock one and decided it was time to remount the thing.

My first step was to weld the crack that had occured when the heat shield was originally removed. Midnight Motorsport helped me with this task, and then I repainted the metal with Dupli-Color high temperature enamel. Lastly I managed to acquire from Germany - through my local BMW dealer - the heat-resistant end piece that connected the shield to the air hose and prevented scorching of the paper hose. The dealer didn't even mark up the price of the hose, which came in at under $10.

That accomplished, I returned to Patrick's place and had him mount the heat shield in its proper place. As they say, the look counts for everything.