Today I am painting some of the pieces. This is where it starts to look good.

We begin with the wheels:





Ol' rusty wheels. Looks like I need Rusty Metal Primer, by Rustoleum:





Don't worry, those tires are trash. 
On the closer left wheel, you can see I have applied the new paint over the gray primer. Sort of a silver color. Here's all the wheels done:



In the meantime, I was painting the engine black. Here's some of the steps involved:

First, mask all the gasket surfaces.

This is harder than it looks! I used blue painters tape, and trimmed it to fit all the mating surfaces - a painstakingly slow and careful process.





Now paint it! Here's the valve cover finished:



and here's the whole head, intake and cover together (dry fit):





Please notice the metallic lettering on the oil filler cap - that was tricky, but looks good. The shiny stripes on the valve cover were easy - I rubbed off the soft paint along the tops of the ribs.

This Just In: The UPS man and the Post Office have conspired to make my day; I just received my 3TP order AND my gasket set. Exciting!!