Behind the scenes of our Chevy 216 Stovebolt Redline Rebuild - Hagerty Media

The Redline Rebuild Chevrolet Stovebolt inline-six is fresh out of the paint booth and ready for assembly. There is more to the process than threading bolts into sandwich gaskets, though. With the latest Redline Update comes a look into the process of engine assembly.

It is a joke in the car world that if you take something apart, 50 percent of the restoration is done; but that’s such a good joke because it’s so comically wrong. However, some take that saying as fact, and anyone in that situation has a solid reality check the first time they attempt to finish a project. Doing things properly takes time and getting wrapped up in the excitement of the finished product can’t distract from getting it right the first time. Our own Davin Reckow is not exempt from this rule.

“Even I can get caught up in the vision of the finished engine back in the car and how good that is going to look,” Davin says as he re-arranges the freshly painted parts on the large tables when I visit him during assembly. “It is such a fun time to be assembling the fresh parts, but I always have to stay sharp to not get excited and overlook anything.”

It’s a lesson that applies to every automotive project and not just to engine assembly. Rather than stress about it though, lean back and let Davin talk you through assembling this timeless inline-six. Be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive a notification with each video that goes live—including the full Redline Rebuild time-lapse of this engine.