Triumph Repair: Painting a TR7 Air Cleaner - inside too ?, triumph stag, engine paint

Question
QUESTION: Howard,

  I'm painting my TR7 dual carb stock air cleaner, was wondering if it's a good idea to paint the inside ?  I would be concerned about the possibility of paint flaking off and getting sucked into the carbs.  On the other hand, I cleaned up some rust off the inside so I'd like to prevent that from returning.  I'm using Engine paint primer and then engine paint gloss black on the outside.  I was thinking of just painting the inside with primer since it sticks well and no one sees it.

   Thanks,

   Steve.

ANSWER: Hi Steve,
I have owned several TR-7s and I painted the inside of the air cleaner cans on all of them and was not very careful about using a primer on all of them. If any of the paint came off, I am guessing that it ate it without even a burp. You are under estimating the ability of your engine to digest a little paint.
Howard

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Howard,

  Ok I'll give it a go once I get all the gunk cleaned off !
  Oh and I finally got my seats finished and installed complete with extra flaps sewn in.  Thanks again for all the advice.

  Cheers,

  Steve.

Answer
Sounds like you are making headway with your project.

When I first seen the TR-7 I was not impressed. First wedge shaped car "yuck", wide stance "good", short wheel base "Bad", No double "A" front suspension "Bad", Half of a Triumph Stag engine "Bad", Little wheels "Bad".

I was factory trained on the "7" and was starting to change my mind a little. The "7" was not accepted by the public mainly because of cylinder head failures. And the gear driven water pump problems. These two items gave even good mechanics trouble which in turn gave the owners problems.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the car handled quite well when completely sideways even with the soft suspension and short wheel base. Even though it was a overhead cam engine, the power band was good too and allowed throttle control when sliding. Just about as good as a up to 67 MGB. Because Mercedes Benz did the crash tests, it had a very well designed crush zone forward of the firewall so it is a very safe car for it's size class.

I soon learned to love the car and had several. In 1980 I received a grant from the DOE to build a alcohol still and convert a car to run on straight grain alcohol and my choice of cars was a TR-7 which I detail on my web site. http://mg-tri-jag.net

I think you will like it when you finish it. Send me a picture of it when you finish.
Howard