I've decided I'm going to change the color of my '87 IROC to probably a burned orange/copper color. Haven't decided 100% the color code or any of that.

Anyhoo.... Being that my car is red now and that I'll have a paint shop to the job, how intensive of a process is this? What is all involved?

As far as the engine bay, I don't want it to be red with a copper car... any tips tricks or anything? Do most painters want the engine out of the bay?

Any help would be apprecaited.

 

yeah, you need to pull the engine.

That's a tough one......

 

I talked to a body guy once about changing colors in a car, he said he did it without pulling the engine, but it cost big bucks. Then again he wasn't a body guy anymore when I talked to him he was delivering gas, maybie thats why

 

dude just stay with your color, cause this is what i had to do.
b4

 

after

 

yeah dude, definately remove as much as you can. I don't see how you can get half of what you need painted without taking everything out. I removed EVERYTHING. fan box, all wiring harnesses, master cylinder/pwr brake booster, steering linkage and box, purge canister, cruise, windshield wiper motor, etc.


and after....

 

Before :



Middle:



After:

 

You both just scared the hell outta me.

 

My car is white and I had the car painted white and you could definelty tell the diffenece in the paint color in the engine bay beacuse of engine temps and time turned the paint a faided shade of white. It always bugged me cause you could immediatly tell the car was repained as soon as you opened the hood. I ended up painting the bay when I pull the engine for the LT1 swap.
Just my .02 but if you change your car color plan on pulling the engine and haveing the engine bay done too, or it will allways bug you that you didn't. More cost effective to have it all done a the same time too, rather than going back later.

 

Thanks for this post. Nice pix. I have to change my color at some point. It's that champagne/sand color, and my wife says she wont step foot in the vehicle if it's that color.

 

It is possible to change the color without pulling the motor, but it's not going to be show quality.. If I had to money to do it, I would pulled the motor and had it stroked, then painted the bay.. but being only 17.. i can't swing it...
Here's a pic of what i did.. Sorry the paint doesn't shine because i was still stripping the rest of the car whenever i took the pic.. the shop was covered with a red coat of dust.. anyways as you can see behind the distributor, I still have a little touching up to do, but i'm pleased... The masking job was crazy! It too me about 6 hours to mask everyhing off..

 

yeah no $hit

 

changing the color is very expensive to do right because obviously you have to disassemble more of the car so that you won't notice the color change.

your motor should be removed if your going to paint it and do it right. if you don't the easiest way would be to have it painted black. understand that alot of people will pass your car up in the future if you ever try to sell it with the mixed colors showing.

you can do a variation of your stock color and not need to change the engine bay but if your going to go drastic it won't look right. everyones different though. some don't care how the car looks up close and just do the outside where the jambs and engine aren't matching.

 

Give you the opportunity to pull out the passenger seat and the backseats since she won't be using them. Always can stand to lose a little weight

I was thinking of changing the color of my car once i finished modding it (so about 10 years since i'm 17 and heading to college....). It's the metallic teal and I get greif from everyone that it's a chick color. But I'm starting to warm up to it. I'll probably end up going with a nice metallic teal and silver or gray racing stripes over the middle...

 

yea to do it right you need everything out but you can do a decent job with with the motor in. clean the engine compartment with a good degeaser,scuff what you can with a scuff pad, most paint co make an adhesion promoter ,remove what you can off the fender skirts,mask it up easy way to do wiring&tubing is to use cheap aluminum foil, a slow dry reducer to keep the paint wet longer and a detail gun so you can twist around eaiser sorry no pics just some past exp.

 

When I first got my car, a project car deal, I had the engine out and since I didn't know what color the car would wind up, I painted everything flat and gloss black. Work with any color. Actually painted the car back to original gray but it looks fine anyway. Flat black is very forgiving of mistakes and rough surfaces.

 

pull the engine and shoot it the same color as the body, ,clear it also, all the work will pay off when you pop the hood and it looks bitchin, i can do it at my shop for my IROC anytime, but i think i may just go with TRIM BLACK, its a nice lookin almost flat color so that everything stand out against it. Either way man, if you want it to look half way decent, you have to pull the motor and everything off the firewall and the fender skirts.

But then again, b4 i drop my ZZ4, i may get some airbrush done under the hood, i highly doubt it, i wnat clean and simple. Just like our cars are.