still scraping

I scrape two pieces of metal a night. I scrape the junk accumulated there from the years (who knows how many) and miles (I guess about 90,000) of oil dripping and road dirt sticking. It’s all on the steel shroud work covering the engine, mostly on the bottom and inside. Some of it is 1/2 inch thick. The original factory seals and gaskets are crap. New ones should prevent this, as well as constant drips of oil on the garage floor and smokey heater vents. At this rate, I should be done scraping by New Years (2004). I would like to paint the parts to match the body, but that means cleaning them a step further. The best way is to take them to a hot tank service and have them stripped. Then have them powder coated. That is also expensive. The cheap way is to clean them with detergent and lots of elbow grease then spray paint them at home. Some parts should be painted flat black to absorb heat from the engine and radiate it out the bottom. There is some debate on whether that makes much difference at temperatures below 500 degrees F, at which point aluminum is melted anyway. The best thing is to keep the aluminum engine parts unpainted with the shroud whatever color you want. It’s easier and looks better anyway. And, hey, I’m all for easy.