Refinishing the LT5

[Daniel_Mc]

Hey guys I just wanted to share some before and after shots of the refinishing of the LT5 in the Dieline Z. The motor was looking rough at some point one of the PO’s before myself or Buzz attempted to “fix” the flaking black paint by spray painting things without disassembly or even masking. It really looked like a “Hold my beer and watch this” job. Once the plenum was removed, this was a job since it had some rounded over tightened bolts, clean up started. I was originally told by some at BG that this LT5 was not black but painted over the stock paint. I found this not the case there was nothing but bare aluminum under the paint and what really got my attention was under the white “4 cam 32 valve” and “corvette” was actually red paint just as the later 8 Black Widow cars would receive. Also when I removed the cam cover emblem the black paint was under that as well. I feel if as though this motor came from Mercury Black not painted later. I need to pull the stampings and see what those numbers tell me. Anyway once off and cleaned it went back together fairly easily and I am very happy with the results. I also took the opportunity to repaint parts of the frame and firewall and get it all looking presentable again.
Also thanks to everyone that helped:
Duke G. and CJ for all of the extra hours of help
Jerry for the new gaskets
David J for finding some parts for me
Lee for help with me being an idiot over the MAP sensor
Mike for the attention to detail with the powder coating

Here are a few pictures, the Z still has a long way to go but it keeps looking better:

LT5 Before


How bad the cam covers were




Here is the red paint and black paint under the emblem