Jim, sorry for the late response. I’ve decided not to go with the perforated aluminum for now.
Although there are still some minor tasks left, we fired up the generator last night and ran it for about an hour. The electric fuel pump worked flawlessly; it started and ran smoothly after initially dying twice. I had to burp the cooling system four times before the temperature gauge stabilized.
I still need to insulate the backside of the door, trim off the radiator, and install the pre-start fan. It’s been a huge project, but it felt great to hear the generator running again.
To flash the generator, you need to access the rectifier and disassemble it quite a bit. The technician who repaired it added a couple of leads to an external terminal, so if the issue arises again, we can handle it without disconnecting anything. The process is to briefly connect a 12-volt battery, positive to positive and negative to negative, at the rectifier to get it making power again.
Thanks for all the help. Dale