While I have the motor out of my car I am going to clean up the engine bay and paint it. I am thinking about painting everything black. Everything meaning the core support to the firewall. Any other opinions/comments? Feel free to post up pics too.

Heres a link to mine i did the whole bay like your talking about...
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/ca...art-finsh.html

IMO...satin black is the only way to go. Unless you are gonig to color match it to the outside of the car, and do a base/clear and make it look super nice, Ide do black. I did my 87 with semi-gloss from a spray can. It looked pretty decent for what it was, but cleaning it was hard.

Just recently, I did my 86 in Eastwood underhood black. Its the right color, finish, and is more durable. Also, using a spray gun is 10000 times better than rattle cans. Came out great...until I spilled brake fluid on it

I like black because it pretty much goes with whatever color the car is. So I wanted mine black now...so later if I re-paint, its done and will look good no matter what color I go to.

Pics...













I sprayed all the way up to the windshield. So the cowl area is all black as well. Looks great. Probably more pics than you were lookin for...

J.

Thanks for the quick responses guys! Both engine bays look awesome! I am thinking about just doing black as this is just going to be a gas sipper for the time being. I dont really have the time to get involved with stripping the whole engine bay but I may have to make time after seeing how well those two turned out.

Its really not too bad as far as time goes. I did mine sort of quick. Actually...mine was a pain because my car had that waxy undercoating all over it and inside the engine bay. Removing that crap took a HUGE amount of time.

Otherwise...just scuff it, wipe it, mask it, and spray away. That eastwood paint was dry to the touch in under 30 minutes.

If you want to spray can it...its even quicker. My suggestion is duplicolor engine paint. They make a semi-gloss, I think its a ford color, and i use that for just about everything. It dries to the touch in a minute, and those cans spray pretty nice. Few decent coats and youre set.

If the motors out....now's the time my friend.

J.

i did mine in satin black too, looks very nice and its easy to touch up. It contrasts very well to aluminum/stainless parts as well


they are older pics, it would nice to get some new ones one of these days

Well I got all the stuff together to do it today but I started moving things around to get to different areas and determined I am in way over my head. There is no way I am going to remember how to put this stuff back in so I am just going to leave it as is I think.

There isn't anything that can't be accomplished if you put your mind to it!!!

If you think you wont be able to put things back take some pics with a digital camera. Very easy to reference back to, and it will be a great learning expierence.

for the lazy at heart;

Tin foil is the best masking material ever, and plastic bags. Ofcourse you still need a little tape though.

I did mine in gloss black.

If i were to do it over again i would change a few things.
1) Dont paint it in winter on a -20*C day.
2) Dont strip it to bare metal, just scuffing the factory paint is plenty.
3) Use primer before paint.
4) Use satin instead of gloss.

The gloss turned out pretty good, but its just a preference. I dont like it in bright pictures, because it reflects too much, and distracts your eye from the engine. I painted it black to focus it on the engine.... (see last pic)

I used rattle can satin black. Why? Because I work on my car and it gets scratched. Its extreemly easy to touch up then.