The wheelwell sections and the battery tray inside my engine compartment need to be repainted. If I decide to paint these areas myself, what kind of paint should I use to duplicate the semi-dull factory finish? Would using straight basecoat work?

It appears that the original paint is rather dull so I want to be able to match it. It doesn't look like it has any clearcoat on it like the outside body panels. However, I just want to make sure before I get the paint. I don't want to make it too shiny by applying a clearcoat over it.

I thought about using a single stage urethane, but the only way I can get the correct color in that is by going with a full 100% gloss or a 10-20% matte using a flattening agent. However, if I used several coats of basecoat only, I can buff it out to the desired gloss to match the rest of the original paint. A single stage urethane with a flattening agent mixed in won't allow me to do that. The gloss stays the same no matter how much you buff it.

I'm not worried about maximum durability because the factory paint wasn't all that great to begin with. I'm just looking for something that will match the factory paint and protect the area from rust. Is a more expensive line like PPG DBC better than a cheaper brand like Omni when it comes to basecoats? Or, is it all basically the same when it comes to basecoat?

 

Yes, that is exactly what they did. When they painted the car they sparingly applied some Paint to the engine bay, no clear, or hardly any clear. It honestly depends on what day they made the car and how good or generous the person painting felt that day. My 87 had Gray Primer spots in the bay, but my 89 Vert has a more glossy look, so there might be some clear under there.

When I repaint my vert (sacrilegious or not) I am going to BCCC my engine bay. It makes cleanup a TON easier. My opinion is they could have done it from the factory, so in effect it would not be incorrect, however they hardly used clear under the hood. I tried to get some black gooie stuff off and when I hit it with some prep-solv I simply removed the paint... the CC helps with durability.

BUT to answer your question... Just use color.

John

 

I just painted my engine bay prior to putting my engine back in - I just went with the base coat. The original finish was still in good shape, so I used a good degreaser, a little sanding to rough up the surface, then painted over.

 

I'm pretty sure the engine bay in my GTA is clearcoated, I was able to wax it with Meguiars NXT after the wash-down, and it took to a shine like I did not even expect. My TA though is def not clearcoated as it is faded quite bad.
But most of the engine bays I've seen are not clearcoated and as you try to wax it, it starts to remove the paint.

 

I do not doubt it one bit. It may have been how the worker felt that day and how generous he was going to be. I know from living in a GM town that there is a saying "you never want a car built on a Monday or a Friday". Its an old saying But Friday people are wanting to go home, and Monday they want one more day of weekend.

John

 

RPM WOT, wow, what a beautiful engine and bay area! That is dealer new like. Great job! Andrew

 

notice the 45... we were at the T/A nats this year and started talking about it... It turns out that the Color RPO is 45U... IIRC

Fun facts

My 1987 has the exact same thing on the bumper support it has "51" written on it.

 

Thanks Andrew, I have put probably about 50 man hours into cleaning and detailing the engine bay this past Summer.

John, that is the same conclusion that I came to, that has to be the color code bc 45U is MGM, but why would they have put that on top of the painted surface?
Maybe so that the workers down the line don't confuse it for black?

 

I was thinking about this and I suspect that they had several colors that were similar in 1992. The numbers were probably placed there to identify the color to line workers for when they installed the Bumper covers, Mirrors, headlight covers and spoiler. Under Florecent lighting the color may be difficult to distinguish between Black (like you said) but I was thinking even some of the other colors like The Jade Green Metallic...

My thoughts is all...