How have you made your engine bay look "cleaner"?

[Madness7645]

Hey there! "First time caller, long time listener"

Here is a pic of what my engine compartment looks like currently. I'm curious how some of you have "cleaned" up the looks under the hood of your mustangs and roughly how much it costs. How much time and effort did you invest aswell?

To me, mine looks too jam packed with wires everywhere. I've seen some look so clean but and have always wanted to do it myself but am worried about how much I would have to rip out to achieve it. This is my daily driver so a weekend project would be ideal.

If you could post pic's of your project or give me some tips or methods that you have used.

Thank you for your time and any help you can offer! It's much appreciated!

View attachment 629660

 

[Rdub6]

There are, by far, better examples than my engine bay, but I’ve come a long way from where I started. My starting point was dirt, grease, acorns, leaves, ripped hood insulation (the beginnings of a squirrel nest).
I started with just a lot of elbow grease. If I could take it off to clean it, I did. Adding some zip ties here and there to tidy up wires also helped. But then the addiction kicked in. I did wire tucks on both sides, removed my intake and valve covers for paint jobs, and replaced a lot of components. Most everything is documented in my build thread, but there are plenty of other resources on here as well, along with access to some real high end engine detail pics and info.

Progress Thread - 2nd Fox Body - “The backorder project”

ok guys, I prob have a similar story to many of you. Had an 86 GT back in the early 90’s. Fast forward 20 something years, and I now have an 86 LX 5.0. It was fitted with the 87 and up front clip and I’ve just realized that it has 90-93 rear inner hatch panels that have round shock access...

www.stangnet.com

Here’s a pic of where I am now:

If I remember correctly, @CarMichael Angelo did a real nice write up in a thread about detailing the engine bay.

It can really be as simple or as extravagant as you want to make it.

Good luck and post pics of the progress.

 

[James V]

I still have to zip tie/hide some wires. But even just redoing the wire looms and using black electrical taped helped me a little. My intake manifold is a little dull looking, I've been needing to clean it up or change it. Recently I spray painted my yellow oil dipstick to black, just so it doesnt stand out anymore.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well.
First you remove the engine.
Then you weld all the holes shut.
Then you make cover plates for the frame rail valleys and you weld them on top of that.
Then you grind.
And you grind.
And you grind.
Then, you slather body putty on the places that are now mangulated by a grinding wheel.
And you sand.
And you sand.
And you sand.
Then you spray primer on top of the puttied up sheet metal.
And you sand.
And you sand.
And you sand.
Then you spray black satin paint on top of the primer, that is covering the body putty, that is covering the mangulated grinding marks, that are there from the welding...of the plates, and the holes..


Then,...you don't like the end result.

So you sand.
And you sand.
And you sand.

Then you spray more black satin paint on top of the sanded black satin paint. That is on top of the sanded down primer, that is covering the sanded down putty, that is covering the mangulated grinding marks, that are there from the welding....of the plates and the holes...

Then,.....you take your engine,....cut off two cylinders, add 6 throttle bodies, two headers, 4 cooling fans, one Chinee turbo, one Australian Wastegate, one custom made glass top box,.......and then sprinkle in some small, and big block Chevy sht for good measure..

Stir for one minute............

Wawhoomwah!

A perfectly clean engine bay, that anyone can have in only a weekends' hard work.

 

[James V]

I wanted to relocate my battery, but all the wiring and adding grounds confuses me so I'm staying away from that to prevent a fire.

 

[FastDriver]

The factories have given up on it and just covered everything in plastic. Hmmm... Doesn't anyone make a plastic engine bay cover for fox bodies? hehe