Okay, my engine is with the builder... and I'm going to visit Sunday to discuss finding a replacement housing and what all else should be replaced considering the motor was only 20k young. Anyways with that I want to improve the part of my car that wasnt all the pleasing... the engine bay. For the most part my vehicle was very clean, outside, inside and under.. the engine bay was always semi-dirty and I was never content with it so with that and motor outside I have the chance to fix it.

I want to paint the irons and possible semi-polish the rotor housings.

Polishing:

I was thinking steel wool, then 250grit sand paper, upto 600 grit should come out pretty nice and then maybe hand paint the section "MAZDA 13B" black and resand the letters down.

Painting:

Now for the irons I want to paint them so they wont 'corrode' and wil overall look cleaner. I origanally wanted to paint it black for simplicity but now I'm getting crazy and am considering Montego Blue. :grin: Would it be possible to do this and if I did would it be ricey/ghetto?

Black paint would be easy to get ahold of in the high-temp varity but the Montego Blue would have to be special... where would I go about getting some special high-temp paint with the Montgo Blue color code?

I also am not sure what I need to do for preping the irons for paint, would I need to sand them or the fact that they are rough already be enough... would I need a etching primer or is strait paint fine?

Thanks,
~Kris

 

You do realize that once everything is back on the engine, you most likely won't see any of it don't you?

If you wanted to do something "special" with the front cover, that will be visible. Other than that, just go with Black or Cast Iron colors for the rotor & side housings.

As for what to use; just make sure they are clean of all gunk, then use some high-temp primer then your high-temp paint. I found the Cast Iron color to be very nice.

 

Yeah, you likely wouldn't be able to see any paint job at all on an FD's motor, unless the engine bay was pretty gutted (no AC, PS, vacuum spider, you name it).

Big thing to take your time with is CLEANING stuff. Don't install any part on the car unless it's spotless. I typically use a scrub brush, a hose, and tons of Castrol Super Clean when I do an engine - spend a good afternoon with things and you'll be VERY pleased.

Dale

 

Dont waste your time on the block.

 

i agree with dale. . . dont worry about how much paint you can put on everything. . . worry about how clean it is. i sandblasted everything and it all came out NICE. the only problem was that later on down the road the added porosity (sp?) of the metals from the blasting caused it all to catch more dirt. the answer to that. . . . KABOOM TILE AND GROUT CLEANER!!!!!!

pretty much. . . paint or coat or polish whats visible and CLEAN what isnt. youll notice CLEAN parts under all the pretty stuff (the stuff on the top of the engine bay) before you notice painted parts. . . plus, paint chips and makes you mad. clean just gets dirty enough for you to clean again.

paul