Kurt, thanks for your input. I have literally studies this for hundreds of hours over the last 30 plus years and disagree. I have heard the same thing though oddly enough I have never seen a photo of the mask. I have been told they were separate masks, 1 for the intake and two others for the valve covers because some corvette big blocks used aluminum intakes but painted valve covers so they could not use one continuous mask. I have also studied many NCRS manuals and forums on the subject. Arguably this has been an ongoing debate since restorations started.
In addition, in my now 100,000 plus photo database I have many photos of not only original photos from back when the cars were near new but also from survivor engines.
Lastly, I found the original intake for the car in the garage when we pulled the car out. From there you can clearly see the factory overspray. I may have "dusted" mine with a little more paint (indirect spray so it will wear off rather easily) than what the original photos show but the original overspray could have deteriorated after 19,000 miles to that point as well and I assume some of mine will also deteriorate once the engine is run for some time. Bottom line is, it is hard to argue with the photos of my original intake which is why I did what I did.
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