Engine Detailing/Show Tips...

cars lookin good

as far as the engine bay goes to get any kinda shine out of the stock paint thats in there it takes lots of rubbing compound. simple green is a great degreaser and to make rubber parts look shiny spray it with some kind of tire shine

looks like your the only car there! lol

Car looks good though!

69clark said:

looks like your the only car there! lol

Click to expand...

Looks like not too many people were there, either.


I second the tire shine on rubber. I use "Mother's Back to Black" on my black trim/rubber stuff. It's the best for that, IMO. If you want to keep it looking stock .... that's cool ... just keep it REALLY clean. If not, start polishing things. It's not very hard if you take your time (and practice on something first). Hide wiring. For all the nasty stuff .... paint it, polish it, hide it, or replace it with a chrome/polished piece. Just keep a theme with it. I don't have a spiffy looking engine bay on my Stang yet, but I've been helping my uncle keep his show cars that way forever.

Well as far as suggestions to get you some trophies some day, here are a few to start with:

Lowering the car makes a world of difference

Spacers for the rear wheels to even out the gap in the rear

Is it possible for you to move your foglights further back in the bumper holes? (The cobra foglights are mounted about 2.5-3" back from the opening of the fog light hole)

Maybe get a set of stainless tailpipes, I believe MAC, Dynomax, and Flowmaster offer just the tails separate from a whole catback. The short tips you have don't look very good from the side.

Dont take those as slams or anything, they are just a few simple things you could set your sights on. You car has alot of good stuff goin for it, the wheel/tire package looks really good, as does the cobra hood and front bumper...not to mention your paint looks to be in perfect shape from the pictures.

The suggestions others have responded with should get your engine bay lookin nice and clean, btw.

I have been taking things off, stripping them, painting then reinstalling them in the engine bay of my car for the 3 years I have owned it and I'm still not happy. I just usually get bored and go down to the garage on weekend afternoons and paint something lol.

Is that your girl and Bob in the 3rd pic?

Jk, but yeah, first things I noticed as said above, lowering and wheel spacers.

To win a trophy you need to know what is being judged. Typically if it's a "judged" event and not a participant judged one, they look for specific things like:

-paint condition
-if there is chrome, what condition is it in
-are all the fasteners the same
-wheel/tire cleanliness and condition (do all the tires match)
-convertibles normally need to have the top up in a judged show
-cleanliness of the undercarrage
-etc.

Its little things that make a big difference in these shows. Like, is the backside of your wheels clean? Is there tranny fluid all under your car's body? Did you use 2 different types of screws to mount your MSD or whatever. Is the trunk all cleaned out? Is there dirt up near the trunk hinges? Are the body panels all aligned properly?


Yeahloh95 can help you a LOT in this field. I enter a show every now and then but the "judged" shows are not for me. I (used to) drive my car too damn much and take too much pride in the years of rubber accumulated in my wheel wells from burnouts and racing to clean it all out. I also had a real problem with someone beating me with a showroom new stock car just because its cleaner than my 11yr old one. If you want to really get into the car show thing be prepared to buy lots of tooth brushes and Q tips and spend countless hours cleaning areas of the car that no one besides a judge at the car show will ever see...

yeah what paul said clean it then clean it again and then have someone else look at it and see if you missed anything. a new set of eyes is always best and an engine pic will help to see what you are working with you should have seen mine when i started it looked pretty bad