Painting Questions

gloss or flat is all up to the look you're going for. I'd personally go with gloss black in the engine bay. It'll look real good.

Some good brands are BSAF and PPG.

If you don't have enough base/clear on the car, you could sand right through your paint when you're doing the color sanding. Too much paint and it just won't look right. Usually people do 2-3 coats of base and 3-4 coats of clear. The extra amount of clear allows for color sanding afterwards to get rid of orange peel. I'm sure the professionals will chime in and give you more details.

unless you plan on smooting all the engine compartment and filling the holes,stay away from a gloss,it will show all the imperfections in the metal.I always use a semi gloss

Use a bc/cc in the engine bay. Its way to confined and cluttered to worry about seeing ripples or imperfections. You would have to add a flatening adjent to a single stage to get an eggshell finsh. Semi gloss or flat would look weird. PPG is good Basf is very good, dupont is good also. Most big names will give similar results. If you use a ppg line drop me a line and I will give you a list and how toos on their product line. I have used it for 7 or so years in a production shop everyday. You will acheive hiding with 3 coats of base and 2 coats of clear is all that is required as long as you are using a clean booth and not much cut and buff is needed. Otherwise go with a third coat to add mil thickness for sanding.

Check out Eastwood company. They make a chassis black that looks very nice. I used it on my 66 coupe.

I'd go with gloss. It will look much better. Post pics when your done.