Thanks! The wife is kinda used to this, she knows I'm a gearhead and has resigned herself to the fact that I'll always be working on something...

I'm officially at the point where the engine is ready to go back in.

I replaced the slip ring, bearings, and brushes in the alternator, soldered everything and re-assembled it.

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I cannibalized the junkyard starter and used it to rebuild my old starter, the gear in the junkyard one was some kind of heavy composite instead of the white plastic that got eaten in the old one, so it should fare better.

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I got the oil pan, water pump pulley, and crank pulley painted, everything else is going to be black.

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And the finished product. I've got most of the bolts cleaned up and threaded into their respective homes. I still need to make a new water pump gasket and thermostat housing gasket, but the only thing keeping the engine from going in is time off and the need to go get an engine hoist.

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I might be able to do it tomorrow, if the stars align...

I'm not going to lie, before I had the oil pan and crank pulley on I was starting to doubt my decision to keep the timing cover plain... I'm still not 100% that I shouldn't just go ahead and spray it orange as well, but I'm more comfortable with it after seeing it mostly together.