Getting the rings to the proper spec was actually easier then I thought, all I did was oil up the cylinder walls, inserted 1 ring at a time and pushed it down 1″ with the piston head, then I used a feeler gauge to check the clearance. If the gap was too small I took the ring out and filed it down on the special ring filer tool I borrowed of a friend. I was very careful not to file down too much at a time so I had to do this a few times per ring. I separated the rings into the 4 cylinders and made sure not to mix them up. I used .018″ gap  for the top ring and .019″ gap for the 2nd ring, I left the oil rings are left as they were because they did not need any filing.

Here is a great link for info about setting the ring gap by Theoldone

In the picture to the left you can see me using a piston to push down the piston ring currently being gapped. In the picture to the right you can see me checking the gap using a feeler gauge.

In the picture above you can see the piston ring being filed down using this special tool. In the picture to the right you can see my engine block all masked up ready for painting.

I used Dupli-Color Aluminum engine paint to paint the block on the outside to make it look nice and new. This will help from any aluminum corrosion that might happen down the road.