Engine out, What color to paint engine bay on a yellow car...

Yellow302 said:

after battling with the sand blaster and getting no where, i decided to go the chemical route and use some lacquer thinner... besides burning my self every 5 min its taking the paint off. the more you apply the faster it comes off... just did the first round and took about half the paint off... need to let it dry after washing it off the bay. ill prob sand off all the little spots and then get back to applying the thinner again... don't think ill have it prepped by the end of today...

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Wasted your time..I do this everyday for a living...Heres how I "cut in" engine bays..since yours hasnt been in a wreck or we will assume your not being and were just prepping for paint....Your gonna wanna seal it and base it and clear it for color change. 1st thing I do on cut ins is get the air blower/gun out and blow out the engine bay to get loose dirt out. Then I degrease it really good. Now Ill use a 3m red scuff and really red scuff the engine bay good. I d/a with 280 grit the top of the core support and sometimes Ill wet sand it with 500grit expecially if its silver or gold or any light metallic. You can even wet sand the engine bay with 500grit. Now its time to blow it out with the air gun again degrease it one more time...mask of engine and all wires and fenders from over spray. Sealer,base, and clear if you choose to clear it. Note I may have missed steps since its late but Im pretty sure I got everything.

What my painter is going to do to "tone down" the clear shine a bit is NOT do a separate clear coat. He said he will spray down the bay with 2-3 coats of the laser red, and on the 4th coat, add the clear into the color mix. He said that will give it a "semi gloss" appearance and not be quite as shiney as a separate clear coat.

And yes as stated above, the painter gave me RED scouring pads to scuff with.


Good Luck!
RC

Yellow302 said:

today i only got to work for a few hours... found my wire wheel and am going to town on the remaining old paint, and cleaning out some rust spots. Its looking much better now. Monday ill be hopefully done with the engine bay paint/rust removal and will start bondoing up the bay to smooth out some spots, fill some holes.

Then ill need my buddy Shane to come over and weld up the bigger holes and weld up the new side plates.

I'm thinking about dropping the k member and re-spraying the control arms and k member to match the new engine bay paint... its not too hard to do is it? just some big bolts, and use my spring compressors?

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I would remove the K member but not paint it. Try to get some pics of the work so far so we can help you out.

IMPORTANT: GO TO AN AUTO STORE AND GET SOME DUPLICOLOR SELF-ETCHING PRIMER. IF YOU HAVE ANY BARE METAL NOW, YOU NEED TO HAVE THE COVERED ASAP.....DO NOT LEAVE BARE METAL FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME!!
Makes sure any area that is bondo-ed is sanded and/or "roughed up" a bit so the Bondo adheres well.

Go to my project day #4 thread and look through the paint photos.
Good Luck
RC

Sand blasting works sooo well. i even built my own pressure pot blaster from an old air compressor tank. Holds upwards of 150# of sand (was a 30 gallon tank).


Any way I still like the look of black bay on a yellow car. Seems to show off the engine more when you pop the hood.



Mine as of today,

View attachment 313002



I would like to see this bondo work in the bay though. If it turns out real nice I may have to go back and smooth mine.

We're going to try to get the following done on mine tomorrow:

K- Member and WHOLE front suspension done.

Complete Tremec install including shifter and pedals.

Drive shaft and exhaust installed.

Drop engine in.

Those are the minimum things we want to do.

Harnesses, gauges, battery relocate, wires etc, may not be tomorrow, but we want to at least get all the "big" things in.

RC