BeardedWrench

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what sort of prep process do you go through? currently i'm sandblasting parts, then cleaning further with a wire wheel, blowing all the dust off, cleaning with pre-paint prep solvent, using self etching primer, then painting with rollbar and chassis spray paint from VHT, it works okay, but i've noticed if i run my finger nail across it, most of the stuff is just coming right off, i'm a mechanic not a painter so this is pretty new to me lol

if you don't mind, what paint did you use? i'm working on my brat and i've been trying out different paints on suspension parts, none of super impressed me yet

Alright boys, last update for a little while on the engine, waiting on parts to arrive and attempting to find a decent oil pump and TRYING to find new cylinder head nuts for it, someone decided to clean the garage while i was at work and now i'm missing 3 head nuts and washers, in any case...i'll be stripping down the suspension and driveline here in the next few weeks so i'll post pics of that, in the mean time...here is the current status of the engine, mostly assembled.

Finally gotten the cylinder heads back from the machine shop, everything brand new and looking good! Split the case, pulled everything out, rods and pistons are coming new soon! Decided while i wait on other parts, i'll sand blast, clean and paint some others! I chose this color because it's what i had at the shop, it looked cool, so i sprayed it and ran out and bought a few more cans, plan is to paint quite a few engine parts with this color I think it turned out great, here's the oil pan in this color, Detroit diesel forest green going to strip down the interior of the pan, but just sprayed it all for now

somewhat of a successful day, engine is stripped down to a short block, did some scrubbing and got it to this point, will be soda blasting once the case is split

awesome man! post up some pics. hooked the brat up to my tacoma and pulled it out of the garage today to pressure wash it underneath, got a lot of it..but there is still a TON of mud left underneath, i think the texan who owned it, enjoyed the off road.

Engine is out and on the stand, did not use a cherry picker, unbolted and picked it up out of there, little thing is heavier than it looks.. now starts the cleaning and teardown process! also i ordered some magazine "swag" for the brat, the article clipping when it was released, i also thought it was neat the article was released april,1978..the month my brat was built.

unfortunately i have to, got the engine to run before pulling for a second but there is mud and sand in the engine, i have everything i need though, the shop i work for restores vintage volkswagens, and we line bore air cooled cases so all the tools are available as of now, already ordered new pistons, rings, crank bearings and rod bearings

@sparkyboy oh yes, she will be 100% again..just depends on how long that'll take, finding parts has become pretty hard but worth it, the wife and i were thinking of naming her alpha, considering she is the first of her "kind" lol

if anyone's interested, here's the original photos before it was shipped to me

engine is OUT, going to strip it down, separate the case halves, and replace as much as possible depending on parts availability, restore the rest!

yeah what's weird is, i've seen 3 of these come from texas, and they all had identical paint jobs. not sure what's up with that lol

My first build log i've actually posted somewhere, picked this 1st gen up from texas and had it shipped up to me in ohio, the plan, is to 100% restore back to original, and make it a new brat again