Have you managed to check your piston to valve clearance's?

I did with my original heads, but neglected to do that with the new LN heads. So I got out my bore scope and stuck it in the spark plug hole.

Here's the closest approach of the intake valve and the piston top.

And the exhaust valve.

While waiting on shim steel, I played with another distraction. I want to create a replacement layer for the engine side of the firewall. I started laying out a paper template.

Template just about done.

Then I got out this roll of engine compartment insulation that I had been saving.

Or so I thought. At some time in the past, I cut a piece from the roll, and what is left is not long enough. Time to go shopping again.

My son picked up my rebuilt alternator.

Work done at Tucson Alternator Exchange.

Time to start another task:installing doors. Here is the left door shell, out of secure storage (aka my hall closet).

I decided to check the door fit before installing hardware. On the left side, the upper front sticks out too far, even with the hinge shoved all the way in.

Left rear alignment and gap is pretty good.

The right side is generally good. To be fussy the front gap is bigger than the rear gap.

After doing some "massaging" with a big hammer and wood block on the A-pillar, I think I moved the right door forward a bit.

Right rear gap and alignment looks good.

On the left side, I elongated the upper hinge holes so the door top can shift inward.

The rear is sitting a little bit high, but I will address that later.

Now the fun starts rebuilding the doors. Here is all the window and lock hardware. I have duplicates from my replacement left door.

Next step: clean and install the window winders.

Those gaps look great. Your car is just beautiful.

Hey there Bob,
after being gone for 10 days it was a pleasure to come back and see the progress you have made. Car is looking awesome. Love the detail you have gone into at every step. Cant wait to see it completed.

Car is looking good! Just a note. I was informed by my bodyshop/painter
that door gaps shouldn’t be messed with till the car is resting on its suspension. Due to the nature of our cars being open topped. Just food for thought. Looking forward to more progress.

Dion, you are probably right, but I wanted a first check before building up the doors. And I could not resist some initial tweaking.

Back home and back at 914 work. A few things got delivered while I was away, including some heat reflecting material. This has foil on both sides.

And the internal foam is closed-cell, so it can't absorb water. I figure that the risk of rust under this stuff is minimal.

New firewall blanket cut out.

For attachment, I grabbed my high-strength Velcro.

I stuck the hook side onto the car, and then velcro-ed the loop side pieces on, with the sticky side out and bare. BTW, I ended up adding more patches than in this photo.

This should help reduce heat transfer, and maybe noise.

That came out really nice (not surprised) and I am pretty sure you will get a noise reduction benefit.

A little side job today. I plan to take my transaxle to CMS, as a little side detour on our next Arizona road trip. To tie it down, I made a cradle.

Test fit. I will use the floor tie-downs and ratchet straps when its time to go. This would be easier in the Suburban, but the E400 is much more plush.

I then tried making shims for the rocker arm shaft supports. I got some 14 gauge stainless steel (stainless was all I could find quickly last week.

I cut 9 blanks to rough size, and then did some manual filing to even them up. BTW that makes 8 plus a spare.

Here are 9 blanks all finished, but lacking holes.

I set up my drill press, but the vise shifted and the first hole is too far off-center. So much for the spare shim.

When I reset the vise and tried drilling again, I was careless a second time, and let the shim and bit over-heat. That took care of the bit, and work-hardened the shim. An extra bit I had also met its end on the same shim.

Taking care of more details.

I needed to make replacement clips for the seat bottoms, that fit into the slot in the base and keep the cushion in place.

When I had the seats recovered, they made new bottom panels, but lost the stock metal clips.

To start, I marked the position of the slot on the cushion bottom.

I used some thin aluminum bar stock, to save, you know, weight.

Here's the initial shape.

Test fit, with the new clip taped to the cushion bottom.

The test showed the clip in the right location, but it needs a slight angle adjustment.

To attach the clips, I used some sheet metal screws. Just in case the cushion collapses to zero, I blunted the screw tips.

New clip in place.

And...it works. The front of the cushion will not lift up.

And I made the same thing for the passenger side.

I got some new 5/16 (8 mm) drill bits. I found Milwaukee cobalt bits at Home Depot, labeled for hard metal, including stainless steel. I also slowed down the drill RPM and used cutting oil. Much better drilling success.

Holes drilled in 8 shims with the proper offset.

And then de-burred. Ready to get back to engine assembly.

Shims in place, under the rocker shaft towers.