Paint Fill On Engraved Numbers - Harmonic Balancer

My winter project has been to re-seal the bottom and front of my engine, and necessitated pulling most of the front and bottom of the engine off. Since those components were off, I degreased and repainted all of them.

For the harmonica balancer, I really wanted it to look much better than the grease coated spinning glob that it looked like before. I carefully used a citrus based paint stripper to get the paint off after using Gunk Engine Brite to degrease it. A stripping pad quickly got the paint off and the balancer down to bare metal. I used a small metal scribe to clean out each of the numerals and indicator lines on the outside diameter of the balancer.

When I shot the paint, I used high heat primer and high heat black even though I was not really worried about temp. Frankly, that was because I shot the rest of the components with it. I shot a normal coat of primer and paint on the faces of the dampener, but the outer edge, I was particularly light so I would not fill the numbers and scribe marks in.

Finally, after letting the paint dry for a few days, I was ready to fill the numbers with contrasting paint. the method I'm using came from a gun forum. People were using this method to fill the engraving on Glock pistol slides to provide a nice contrast on the pistols. I figure if it can stand the wear and tear a pistol sees, then it should be able to handle an engine bay.

Materials for this job cost $4! I bought a $1.99 bottle of white nail polish at the drugstore and a $1.99 bottle of non-acetone nail polish remover. I also used paper towels (flat non quilted seems better).

To do the job, it seems better to do one number at a time. Fold a towel into a small square or rectangle and wet with remover. Then dab nail polish into the number and scribe line next to it. Very quickly and gently, wipe away the excess, leaving the paint inside the engraved number and indicator line. I actually did my numbers twice, and I did much better the second time around. Make sure to have several little squares of paper towel ready, and use a new square on each number. Don't scrimp here and smear white paint around on your work!

This is a really quick process, but don't be tempted to do 2-3 or 4 numbers at a time. The nail polish will dry too quickly on you and you'll have a difficult time removing it from the surrounding area with the remover.

Below is my before and after. You can see a little bit of white paint on the face of the dampener in the photos, but it does not show in normal lighting.

The damper is now installed, and it looks good in the engine bay. Now if I can just get the oil pan back on and the steering rack back in place so I can drive the thing, I'll be a happy guy!