Thank you all you are all very helpfull.

As for the coating, I was going to remove it anyway as I know if it is galvanized, it will produce bad fumes and if it is aluminized or anything else, instead of welding, I wil be more bonding than anything else --> NOT GOOD... As for material, I am about positive that it is steel with a coating that LOOKS like galvanized.

Here are some pics of the setup. The airplane pic was taken way back and now the ignition is mounted on the left side of the engine box for better cooling and better clearance from the cowling.