Its all buttoned up and now I have to attach the trannie, put in new spark plugs (hey, its a complete rebuild, I might as well spring for new plugs
). The gauge you can see on the back side of the intake manifold is temporary. I was advised by someone knowledgable that with a tight main bearing rebuild its very possible to jam the 100 psi oil pressure gauge on startup. They make a 160 psi gauge for the DB4GTs which had main bearing clearances very close to what mine are set at. I'll see what kind of oil pressure I have on start up and running, and then decide whether I want to spend $150 on the 160 psi gauge. That's a pilot shaft (old trannie input shaft) sticking out the the pressure plate.
The white paint that you see on a couple of the cooling system flanges is an industrial primer. Because they are aluminum, these fittings have been know to corrode badly where the hose clamps onto the flange. You won't see the paint when the hoses are on.
An interesting fact... Aston put all the bends for the cooling system into the metal fittings, the car only uses 1/2", 1" and 1-1/2" straight heater hose, so if you blow a coolant hose you aren't looking for some weird convulated hose. I keep about 1 foot of each diameter hose stuck inside each other in the trunk and that covers all my coolant hose needs. I think that's one think they did smart.
Did a final check and found that I only had the oil drain plug screwed in by about one thread, glad I checked!