Why did it take 2 1/2 months to rebuild the heads on my GTA? Cause of stuff like this. The heat shields that protect the spark plug wires bolt onto the exhaust manifolds, and when I was taking off the manifolds, the tabs that go on the bolts broke of a couple of them.



I could not find replacements anywhere - online or junk yards or ebay. So I found a welder on Craigslist who would weld the tabs back on for $40. He did a good job.



Then I painted them with high-temp spray paint. You have to cure the paint I got, and I ended up using my kitchen oven for that. It took about 6 hours. It turned out really great.



But, it ended up taking an entire weekend to get it taken care of. For just the heat shields. Lots of little things like that added days to the project. But I'm back on the road now!

 

They look great! I threw mine when I got my new manifolds but this is a good solution as they always look so messy with the corrosion! I am often 'baking' painted parts in our new oven...When the missus is not around.