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Took your advise TMG and manufactured blanking plates out of 12mm plywood.
As you can see, the engine is still in the engine bay on it's mounts - but it's ready to be lifted out.
The manifold is kept in place with just two screws on the outer studs.
The plan is to leave the engine on it's mounts until the bodywork commences - and lift it then.
In the meantime, just trying to keep the moisture out.
The blanking plate over the starter motor aperture was cut using a hole-cutting saw to fit the curved mounting flange next to the block. I couldn't cut a bigger diameter because this was the biggest diameter saw available (and the radius wouldn't fit the mounting flange either) - this meant that the studs had to be the periphery of the plate.