Well, yesterday was mating surfaces day. Turns out, you never see mating surfaces day coming. One minute you're in front of the telly watching footie with a mate, the next you're taping sand paper to the kitchen countertops. Mating surfaces day. You never see it coming.
I ended up using 240 grit first, then 400. Asked Mrs K if she was cool with me bringing half my engine into the kitchen and having at it with a couple sheets of sandpaper, and when I say asked I mean didn't ask. Taped up the paper like so -
and lowered the cylinder block onto it. For the first time since remodelling the kitchen I found myself agreeing with my wife that there wasn't enough counterspace (I didn't know what the hell she was talking about - now I do) - really could've used another sheet in there for more of a "slide". No matter, it's all good. Here's what it looked like before -
and here's the after -
Not perfect (couldn't shift those couple of darker areas) but a load better. Pretty sure I can live with it.
The head was a bit trickier - the exhaust studs stuck out a little too far and meant I'd fuck up the granite in double quick time. Had a re-think, dug out a collage my lovely and highly arty wife made for me years ago and taped some paper to that instead -
- the thick glass made it perfect for getting into the hard to reach places and kept a uniform flat surface. Don't have a before an after of the head but it came up good too. Hauled everything back into the garage, got out a stanley and cleaned up the gasket from the cylinder block -
Surfaces...mated. Ready for mating anyway.