9:00pm 55 degrees out, good time to start painting. Well according to the rules of painting no it’s not a good time but my schedule doesn’t revolve around the paint rules, I have to paint when I can so I did.

One of the main reasons I paint the engine box /compartment is so that I can see if any stress cracks start. With a motor this big I want to keep an eye on any changes taking place that should not be. Plus it just looks nice. I used a wrinkle finish technique that I perfect on car dashboards when restoring cracks in them. The wrinkle finish does not show the grain or flaws in the wood joints as much.

Pilot makes pre-cuts in the wood for venting the exhaust tunnel. Should you want the vents you only need to cut the covering and iron the edges.

The engine is mounted and just waiting for the choke servo install.

Not much more to do. It all of a sudden is coming together faster than I thought it would. Of course I could always hit a bump in the road so I don’t want to ahead of myself just yet.