Painting An Engine Bay For Dummies...

[gota0have0boost]

I picked up this car from Keith and decided before I put my crap in it, I would do a little cosmetic fixing first. The car is in really nice shape, so putting a motor in an engine bay with scratches would be silly.

For starters, I am in no way a professional painter. I am going to go through this step by step to help others in the future with their projects.

The first thing I did was remove as much stuff from the bay as possible. The more the better. It would have helped even more to have dropped the sub frame, but I did that the week before and painted it with bed liner and didn't want to take it all apart again.

Start
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2522.jpg

Once everything was removed, I crawled under the dash and taped up some of the larger holes so that the car wouldnt be soaked by the pressure washer.

Once Everything was taped, I rolled the car out into my driveway and sprayed straight simple green on to the entire engine bay. I let it sit for a few minutes and blasted the piss out of everything. I repeated that process until I used up a bottle of SG.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2801.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2806.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2802.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2805.jpg

I let the car drip dry for an hour and pushed it back in.

Once it was dry, I got out my red scuffy pads and went to town. Did the entire engine bay. Half way through I decided to not be a pussy and remove the booster anyways.

Whole bay scuffed...
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2810.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2809.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2808.jpg

The way it sits now^^^. My next plan is to roll it out again a another round of degreasing. Once it dries it time to mask everything off and spot prime scuff, wipe down with pre paint wash and tack cloth.

I will keep you guys up to date.

Thanks for looking!

[Nate Crisman]

ohh nice. A man after my own heart.

Keep a big thread going with the buildup progress. What's the plan/goal?

[CHRIS]

i love a thread with pictures viewable at work.


good luck and keep the thread alive!

[gota0have0boost]

I'm picking up the paint today after work. I have a top mount/gt4094r going onto an aluminum rod 2 liter with all the goodies.

[gota0have0boost]

Paint is here! A local shop can match the factory color in an acrylic enamel spray can. Im not set up to shoot paint. Nor do I have equipment to do so.

[91tsiguy]

Who told you to clean and scuff the engine bay??!!!

:)

[gota0have0boost]

Who told you to clean and scuff the engine bay??!!!

:)
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/2009/06/chocolate_chip_cookie.jpg
Thanks!

[91tsiguy]

Not funny..... I actually have an appetite for one now. :(

[TurboMike]

Its 12:33 and I cant take lunch until 2pm and I see that cookie. You bastard.

[gota0have0boost]

*UPDATE*

My wife and I got up early today in preparation for some 4th festivities. We were told to bring Jello, so we had to get up early enough to allow time for it to set. Once we made the Jello, we decided to go prep the car more and get it ready to paint.

She is freakin great, ill tell ya. She did 95% of this herself. Im lucky to have her and not some bitchy cunt as a wife.

Whats left to do is pre-paint wash everything down then wipe that off. I have an area that I need to hit witha wire wheel quickly and then do some spot priming. Once the primer is set I just have to make sure all my brake lines are bent enough to give me access to shoot the paint.

So far I think its come out pretty well. We'll know for sure once I start shooting the paint. I just need to remember to pull the Gremlin out before I start spraying.

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2811.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2812.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2813.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2814.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2815.jpg

That's all I have for now. Progress, slowly but surely.

Thanks!

PS- Anyone have a DS loop laying around they aren't using?

[gtluke]

wtf gremlin?

[91tsiguy]

Justin ain't kiddin around

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2473-2.jpg

[gota0have0boost]

The Gremlin is the greatest/most reliable car Ive ever owned. 1 BBL carter carb that is completely garbage but yet it runs and runs and runs.

Im hesitant to put the v8 in it only because it runs great with the 258.

[gota0have0boost]

Someone PLEASE teach me how to use this camera! LOL

I sprayed the bay after work today. I kept thinking about what else I could do and basically just said fuck it and started spraying. Let me just say, the camera does it NO justice. I am so happy with the way it turned out. To think that this came from a paint spray bomb can is incredible. I guess my hard prep work paid off.

The good thing is, If I nick something later, I have 2 cans left. I can just spray it on and fix it!

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2818.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2819.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2820.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2821.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2822.jpg
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2823.jpg

Tell me what you think. Besides the camera work is shitty. It was a $600 Canon SLR!

[91tsiguy]

Camera: Get a tripod and don't use the flash for one. Then let one of the other guys on here tell you where to go from there. :wink:

Paint: I can see that it looks good--will have to stop by and see it in person sometime for sure. Roll the car out in the sun later this week and let it bake for a couple days then, but make sure to pull the masking and everything else off first.

[Nate Crisman]

SWEEET! Glad to see that shell is going to be a hardcore car.

[gota0have0boost]

How long should I wait till I pull the little masking tape I have? Should I have done it right away?

[Nate Crisman]

I waiting about a day after spraying mine to pull the tape and newspaper off. Once the paint is hard, I think your fine.

[gota0have0boost]

Is there any trick to pulling off the tape without fucking up the fresh paint?

[TuRBoTaLooN95]

Is there any trick to pulling off the tape without fucking up the fresh paint?

wait until it's fully dried!

looks badass dude!

[gota0have0boost]

The next project will be getting that heater core out of there without ripping the whole dash out of the car. Wish me luck!

[gota0have0boost]

Came out to this today. This is the largest one. There are small spots like that on the radiator support. Easy to fix? Hoe do I go about it?
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q93/krajus83/IMG_2834.jpg

[gota0have0boost]

bump

[91tsiguy]

Cover it up with POR15 ?

[gota0have0boost]

mods please delete^^^^

[gota0have0boost]

bump...

[Nate Crisman]

That area looks like there was contamination and the paint wasn't able to adhere to the surface. spot where the degreaser didn't get completely rinsed off?

lightly sand those spots down, clean them up, rinse. and repaint the spot

[gota0have0boost]

Cool, well I went out with some 800 and sanded it smooth, taped it off, prepped it and sprayed. Looks good. Is it a 2 stage paint job, no. Does it have an imperfection here or there, yes. Did it cost me hundreds? No, 60 to be exact.

The only thing you can see where I fixed is a faint tape line. I can live with that. There are a couple other areas on the radiator support the popped up like that, but they are so small they will probably go unnoticed. For 60 bucks, I say it looks DAMN good!

[Big Block DSM]

Great job

[NoSleeves]

Nice work. You for hire?