I pulled the heater/evaporator box off the firewall and repaired a few cracks in that. Then I painted it with SEM Trim black, and I masked off the stock Harrison sticker that says R12 on it, since I will be keeping the system R12 in the car. The Trim Black looks soooo good compared to the factory blah black plastic and the SMC/fiberglass bottom part. I'll try to get a picture of that tomorrow.
Here is one shot of covering the vent cuts that I made. First I used aluminum tape to give it a little structure, then I used Gorilla tape over it to try and make it more durable so it will last a good long time.
Also blasted my manifolds and the stock factory heat shields, then painted with Cerakote High temp. I treated the small screws with phosphoric acid to make them black and installed new studs for the Y pipe, coated all of them liberally with anti-seize before installing. I used Graphite black on the manifolds and Tungsten on the heat shields. Blasting, cleaning, then baking and painting took most of the day, just for one pair. I did the blasting on the other set during the week, so I just had to clean/bake and paint last night.
Tomorrow I will install the manifolds again and make sure my Y pipe still bolts up now that I welded it all up. If all is well with that I can move on to pulling the engine/trans back out so I can do the wiring harness, the rear engine cover gaskets, install the clutch hydraulic throwout bearing (and bench bleed it with the master) and get the oil pressure sender installed. I had put an aftermarket sender on the engine for the gauge in the other car it was installed in, but I can't get enough leverage to get the adapter off so close to the firewall. I also need to pull the crossmember off the engine and install the new stainless brake line for the front right brake.
After all that it is on to the dreaded rust repair and painting the underside of the car.