Ice_Wolf

Pretty self explanatory. I've decided that since I'm re-wiring parts of my harness that I now have the chance to paint the engine bay. I was thinking of going with black so that when/if I decide to paint the body of the car, I won't have to worry about painting the engine bay perfectly also to match. Also, black seems to show off other parts of the engine bay better since the outside color of the body and the engine bay aren't the same color. Also, the black would be a nice contrast against the shiney aluminum. My g/f's brother decided to use truck bed liner to paint his and I think it turned out awesome. It's pretty smooth and looks nice, and also doesn't scratch if you hit it with a wrench like normal paint would. He said it was fairly easily, degreased, sanded with 250 grit, soap and water, brake cleaner, and sprayed on the bed liner. It's very heat and damage resistant and looks pretty nice too. So, what have you guys done? Pictures are welcome too!

micah

Bed liner is durable... but is hard to clean and grease/oil sticks to it a LOT..... been there.

I used a bunch of those purple 3m scuff pads on my engine bay.. then wax/grease remover, then painted with the same color as the exterior of the car. Came out great. POR15 is a great paint too if you want something that'll last forever and protect from rust like no other.

Ice_Wolf

Yea, basically I'm looking for something that's not going to flake off, fade badly, or just plain not look good. I figured the black would look good since I plan to paint the car bright red.

fast87t2

iTrader: (1)

i did mine with high temp flat black came out decent kinad didrty in the picture but havent had a flaking problem yet

Dan_s_young

iTrader: (1)

I used Duplicolor truck bed liner. Setup quickily and I have been happy with the results.

Before:



After

Spectator

iTrader: (1)

Heres mine

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

I'm in the process right now of prepping for paint. I'm using Tal Strip to strip the old paint and then I'll use the Duplicolor Ceramic Primer and Engine Paint in Low Gloss Black. I only have pics up to where I am currently but I'll post more this weekend after the primer and maybe some paint.

Ice_Wolf

I believe I'm going to be going with the bed liner paint, mostly because it won't scratch on me, not to mention I won't have to worry about it fading like normal paint will. I know that normal paint is not heat resistant, and that has a lot to do with why the paint in the engine bay goes to crap. I want something that I can spray and not have to worry about it fading on me or flaking off, or scratching it and ruining the paint job. This car for the most part is a daily driver, so I'm not going to be a clean freak about it, but I would like if the engine bay looked a little nicer. The bad thing about using regular paint is that there's a lot of prep work involved. I just don't have the time to strip, primer, sand, paint, wetsand, and clearcoat to make it look halfway decent. At least the bed liner would give me a nice look and won't fade or flake over time. If I was planning on doing something more in the way of a show car, I would take the time to paint the engine bay the same color, hide all the wiring, etc., but for this car that's kind of out of the question. Any other opinions?

micah

Why don't you just paint the engine bay the color of the car? I mean.. I'm not opposed to a black engine bay on another color car.. but... might as well go blaze red all around.

Ice_Wolf

Reason being is because I don't plan on painting the car until next spring. Also, I've got quite a few of the parts taken out of the car right now, so that was my reason for wanting to paint it. Another thing is that I'm not sure if painting the car is a for sure thing yet since it's my daily driver, and it's probably just going to get dinged up again from other people, leading me to not want to paint the car. If I'm going to paint the engine bay the same color as the car and get that in depth about it, I'd want it to match the outside perfectly, as well as fill in all the holes on the firewall, which is an option I don't really have since I don't have another car to drive. I feel that if I get too in depth with this car, I'm not going to want to keep it for a daily driver. I don't want to turn this car into a project car because I love it as it runs now as my DD. I plan on getting a TII and putting it away in a shop and working on it for a few years as a project instead of doing it with the one I have now.

EDIT: Another nice thing is that at least the black bed liner would contrast well with the bright red on the body and the red accents in the engine bay. If I'm using bed liner, what kind of prep would I need to do? My g/f's brother said he just degreased, sanded with 250 grit, washed with soap and water, sprayed brake clean, the sprayed on the bed liner. What prep methods should I be looking at? And specific brand of bed liner that would work best?

Ice_Wolf

Well, I decided to go with the Duplicolor bed liner for my paint. I plan on degreasing, scuffing with 320 grit, brake clean, then spray on the bed liner. I looked at my g/f's brother's Mustang again and still like the look, and think that it's the way I should go too.

micah

Use purple scuff pads from like Napa or something... works WAY better than sand paper in the engine bay. LOTS of bumps and curves that sandpaper didn't like.

For degreasing, the best degreaser for an engine bay IMO is scalding hot water. I hooked a high-temp hose (20bucks at the local garden department) up to the drain valve on my water-heater. The water coming off was black and chunky. And that was AFTER I had used an actual engine degreaser in there.

Followed up with scuff pad, then wax/grease remover and it was ready for primer/paint.. POR15 is a great engine bay paint... good luck with the bed-liner. I can just imagine that stuff collecting dirt over time.

Ice_Wolf

I know this may not be painting related, but what other things can you do to "clean" up the engine bay? Looking at a few show cars, it looks like they run their wiring harnesses differently somehow as to hide them better. From the looks of it, they relocated a lot of the accessories and run the harness behind the firewall and through the inner fenders. What else can be done to hide things?

cpubugs

I am curious about the truck bed liner being heat resistant... It is some what rubberized, put that next to a red hot rotary exahaust, or a turbo.... poof... Just my theory. Is there a difference between truck bed liner and under carriage coating?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Normal paint fades mostly due to UV exposure- something the engine bay is not really subject to.
My original bay paint (Blaze Red, incidentally) is still in very good condition, the firewall/passenger side fender well (where the exhaust manifold is) is nearly perfect...so the "heat" issue is a non-player, I think.
What kills the engine bay is exposure to harsh chemicals (brake fluid, degreasers, etc.) and careless work habits.

Anyway, no matter what type of finish you decide on (and this is actually more critical with thicker truck bed liners) be very careful how you prep the myriad threaded holes...clogging them up with material makes reinstalling bolts very difficult.

I would suggest that after finishing the prep work you run a tap through all the threaded inserts, then install a sacrificial bolt (not threaded all the way in) for the paint process. After the paint has cured, remove the bolt(s) and you should be good to go.
At the same time, make note of all the ground points.
Prior to paint, install a bolt with a washer which, removed after paint, will leave fresh, bare metal for a good ground. This will save having to go back later and sand through the finish to get back to a good ground.

Finally...after prep and before paint, hit the entire bay with pressurized air.
There are lots of seams and crevices where water/stripper/and the like can hide only to reappear when hit with the pressure of the paint gun (or can).
That can really ruin your day.

yusoslo

^sound advice....bravo

Ice_Wolf

Yes, there is. The bed liner dries to a much harder surface, whereas the undercoating stays rubbery. If you've ever felt a bed liner before, they dry hard and stay hard, whereas the undercoating will stay the rubbery consistency it's supposed to. I doubt that you'd have a problem with bed liner flaking off if it's 5 inches from the exhaust, and especially if that exhaust is wrapped or heat shielded. This is going on a N/A anyways, so a very hot exhaust isn't a problem.

That's some good advice Clokker. I agree with you have the paint fade though. It's not really that the paint is faded in my engine bay, but that it's damaged from chemicals. That's good advice about the bolts. I was planning on doing something like you suggested there. I'll definitely keep that in mind through this process.

I know this may not be painting related, but what other things can you do to "clean" up the engine bay? Looking at a few show cars, it looks like they run their wiring harnesses differently somehow as to hide them better. From the looks of it, they relocated a lot of the accessories and run the harness behind the firewall and through the inner fenders. What else can be done to hide things?

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Keep in mind that lots of "show" vehicles delete accessories, not just hide them.

Also, their primary concern is looking good rather than being practical, so maintenance/repair (and even ease of installation) is not a priority.

Just casually glancing at my engine bay (mostly stock, ATM) it looks like relocating the coils (maybe into the cabin) and relocating some of the widely scattered relays and the main fuse block would go a long way towards spiffing up the bay.

Ice_Wolf

Yea, that's very true. I'd imagine a lot of the things are relocated to places that might make them less than desirable to work on for maintainence work. It looks like they relocate many of the accessories to further down on the strut towers to hide them. I agree, if I relocated my coil packs and some of the relays it would clean things up big time. Painting the engine bay with the bed liner would help to hide the wiring harness also without having to run it through the fender wells and making it a bitch to work on. I'm gonna look through my Sport Compact Car magazines for some ideas. I've been looking at a few, and actually my engine bay has less things in it than what their cars do. I think the reason they look so clean is because things like intake manifolds, turbos, blocks, etc. draw your attention more than the wiring harness does, and that's maybe why you don't see it. If you actually look, a lot of the wiring harness is still there, it's just black so that you notice that polished aluminum intake manifold before you do the wires.

classicauto

iTrader: (3)

Bedliner:
Pros - durable, available in different easy to apply formats (such as ROLL ON) hides roughness of a panel well, easy to prep for.
Cons - difficult to clean (ie. nearly impossible) its only as durable as what you pay for (ie. the cheap ROLL ON bedliner doesn't hold a candle to real rhino lining/elephant hide or even Envrio-liner)

Paint
Pros - Easy to clean, durable (against chemicals when you use GOOD, urethane based material) attractive.
Cons - Difficule to prep for, costly.

cpubugs

Another con to bedliner or undercoating in the engine bay is when your wrenching on something and your hand slips your knuckles hit a rough surface rather than a smooth surface... Ouch....

scrip7

iTrader: (6)

Whatever you do please do NOT use undercoating as your paint....I will be forced to hunt you down and beat you hahaha. My TII's previous owner decided to do that and it looked real nice for about a month, but dirt sticks to it and before long, you have a brown, nasty, thick gooey "funk"everywhere that is a major pain in the royal *** to remove.

Observe:

scrip7

iTrader: (6)

+1

Excellent post.

FlavorDrops

Nice thread. I vote for archive!

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

How about:
http://www.por15.com/bHardnose-Paint...2&category=212

Tough, chemical resistant, dries smooth, heat resistant, relatively easy to apply.