Porcelain Flathead for your sofa?

thats some layers of paint!

Don't show me things like that! I'm apt to end up making the Polo engine look like a Victorian water closet.

Completely mad and beautiful in equal measure.

I'm actually trying to figure out how best to apply a gold leaf design over gloss black engine paint, a la this service.

A nice floral design across the rocker cover, gold plated bars and a nice gold plated edge to the black cover. Get myself a metal air filter box as found on the later engines to replace my early plastic one and find a suitable saucer or plate in a flea market or charity/antique shop to steal the design from. I could also get the inner wings decorated to match, a little bit of design across the slam panel and an 'Armitage' type print on the underside of the bonnet.

If I can find a way of applying the gold paint, I could be on to a winner here. I already know Plastikote is unsuitable for engine bay temperatures, so I'll need to find some sort of VHT gold paint... oh, hello eBay Watch list.

I'm pretty sure that's the point of displaying it sitting on a couch. A real cast-iron engine with gearbox would make a much bigger dent in the upholstery! It would probably fall straight through the couch.

They're very unusual but also very awesome. I would like to see a suggestion of how they would be displayed in an actual house. The perspex engine stand is nice but it would be a bit out of place in the average living room!

This made me realise something: kilns. I wonder what sort of temperatures gold paint/gilt as used on ceramics needs to get to and how far off that is from the temperature the components I want to decorate get when the engine is running. Furthermore, I'm wondering if it's possible to get the parts all painted up and then apply the gilt on top and just oven bake them until done. I've never really done any work with ceramics, so I know only the loosest theory behind how it all works.