i have a maroon iroc nice color ! But my engine bay looks like a$s i want to paint it black does any buddy disagree ?I think it will clean it up and look better.

I did mine. I'm not sure if I like it anymore... it does seem to take your eyes to the engine more and away from the other wiring and such in there though. If you want it looking new all the time, be prepared to wash it a lot.

I just went through this whole decision and I also have a maroon car. I chose to go with gloss black and I am very happy that I did. The black really makes the eye go towards the engine and plus it is easy to keep clean. Things get scratched so easily that I wanted something that was easy to repair. If you are going to shows than I would stick with the body color but if you just want a nice looking engine bay than go with black.

I think a black engine bay would look good with a maroon car. As was said the black really helps put your attention on the engine. My engine bay was black already( black car) but I have repainted and touched it up.

Yea the black look in your bird looks great im doing the black. Thanks guys.

ur always gonna get those people that say "was your car originally black??"

when i had the motor out i sprayed mine black with about 8 cans of spray paint and i think it came out pretty nice. This way if you ever scratch it or something just get out the paint and toutch it up. Heres a pic....

yea i think its going to look nice.Hey nice pic man that ls1 looks great in your the 3 gen.

Thanks, it was alot of work but it was 100% worth all of the effort.

not to throw off the thread but how much did that entire swap run you...no minor costs excluded???

well the complete engine w/ computer and harness came out to about $1900 after i sold the trans and all the accessories. The headers cost me $800. I needed a $40 adapter to adapt my th400 trans. Exhaust cost me $240 for true duals with bullet mufflers. about $100 misc. for epoxy for intake, welding, and spray paint.

So the total cost of my swap was right areound $3000. I know that this is a little lower than the average which i believe is around $4000.

It was very simple swap i just took alot of time (and patience) to do it how i wanted it done. I rewired the entire computer pin by pin for 160 pins. I did this to get rid of all the wires that i did not need. As you can see there is very little engine wires anywhere.

I think black always looks awesome in an engine bay. It totally gives the engine a whole new perspective. I painted mine wrinkle black, which just looks awesome. A lot better than just standard black paint.

Randy, black engine bays looks kick a** in my opinion. I have a red Z and did my bay black 2 years ago:
AC1LE - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

My car is red and I did the engine bay black while the motor was out. Easy on the eyes and easy to keep looking good. The polished aluminum parts look good against it too.

Nice work AC im so convensed to do the engine bay black.sweet ride.

My formula 87 used to be a cool metallic burgundy colour, but the top of the cowl area/firewall has already been done in black, over the original burgundy. Should i go the extra mile and do the rest up in black? Its such a sore on your eyes, SO many hoses and wires, i got really frustrated. Ill post some pix of my old car, and how i cleaned up the engine bay, but in this formula, i just do ALOT of work, and it doesnt look any cleaner. What do you think?

edit: Forgot to mention, my firebird is also black on the outside now, but there is a chance i may get it painted the original colour, with a gold bird on the hood.





And here is my old car, before and after.

I vote semi-gloss black. I think it really cleans things up...no matter what color the car. Body color looks good too tho... Luckily my car is black, so my choice was easy



Justin

Semi gloss will turn flat over time, unles you touch up the paint. If you want to end up with a good looking flat, go with semi, if you want to end up with semi, go with high gloss. If you want high gloss, maybe a clear-coat, and ALOT of regular cleaning. But i love the idea of it reducing clutter appearance, blending in the hoses and wires, looks nice an clean indeed.

online: Ive heard of people have trouble with the paint fading. I pretty much use engine enamel for everything. I LOVE that stuff. Duplicolor engine paint is great. It dries quick, sprays great, covers wonderful. I use it for everything...axles, suspension parts, whatever.

I did my 67 Bonneville engine bay in that stuff..semi gloss black, and that didnt fade even one little bit in over 3 years. Guess Ill see what happens.

But like you said...best part is, if it does get scratched or faded, just hit it with alittle fresh paint!

Justin

Did you get that LS1 from a guy in MD named Joel?

Yup... You know him?

Speaing of wrinkle black, I juust painted my bay with Duplicolor's spray on bedliner. It actually looks really good and was cheap. Durable too. I'll post pics when i get a chance.

Ok time to revive the thread. I was contemplating whether to paint my car burgundy and get rid of the black, Or to keep the car black and paint the engine bay black as well. Well after some time, i decided to go all black.

Heres some progress pictures.

1) Before

2) During


3) First coat

4) Few more coats. Unfortunately, this picture was taken when the paint was wet, when it dried it turned out to be flat!!! I was very pissed. SO i got home depot to refund my money and bought a trusted brand, DUPLICOLOR!



Some more progress:

This times, instead of using a wire wheel, which doesnt strip completely, im using it with the help of a chemical stripper. MUCH MUCH easier.

1) Stripper at work

2) Buffed out a little.

3)Buffed out a little more, Almost ready for paint.

Will shoot the spray tommorow, and post pix when im done.

Alright, so heres the progress again. I got side-tracked hooking up my new sound system. So each time i go into the garage, instead of listening to the radio, i just turn on the new system, which involves hooking up the battery and getting in the way of painting. Anyways.


Heres the progress.

1) Final buffing of metal before paint is shot


2) No during pictures, was too "foggy" with all the aerosol for a clear pic. Heres the final paint. DRY AND SHINY! this time




Few more in same lighting, but different camera settings.