Mostly disk and cup type knotted wire wheels and a flap disk on a 4 1/2" angle grinder. Some areas with my air powered 2" right angle grinder with 60-120 grit discs. And some tight areas with small wire wheels with my elec drill.
Messy work, I was wearing a hat, safety glasses, ear muff tpye hearing protection and a dust mask. I still got crap in my eyes and nose and hair.
i've graduated to a full respirator instead of the old dust masks, especially when painting. i was getting horrible sinus infections, prone to them anyway, and i couldn't take it anymore. found a pretty nice respirator at home depot for less than 30 bucks and it works great.
That looks great. It will look awesome with the crate motor installed.
Did you bother to prime the engine bay? The most I ever did to my car was just take a rattle can to it after I had the engine out.
-Edgar