Painting the engine bay..

[Wisconsin_Snake]

My dilemma is that I have not painted before and was always planning on taking my car in to have the body painted….

DV highly recommended painting the firewall (and I assume this included engine bay in general).

Taking the body/firewall to a paint shop while not mounted to the car would probably be impractical though possible. (I am at the point of where I will be starting to mount things to the firewall so it decision time.)

What have you guys done???

[rustyBob]

If you have never painted before then by all means take it to a pro.....
or you can spray bomb it yourself.....
just depends on if you want the firewall to match
the outside color....

[Wisconsin_Snake]

Expanding on the question, what most have done here...
Are most of you painting your engine bays to match the exterior?
Are you painting it another color (i.e. just black?)
Or just leaving the gel coat exposed (or is that bad for the gel coat).

[rustyBob]

My car was painted after it was put together.....my firewall and inner fender panels are all painted satin black and my engine is painted gloss black....the body color is an antique bronze color....its just depends on how you want it.....some paint it body color some paint it the color of the stripes and some even run the stripes through and down the firewall....the choice is yours......or you could always polish up some aluminun panels to mount in the engine compartment.....i have seen all of the above on many different cars....

[Wisconsin_Snake]

rustyBob, when you had your car painted (namely the engine bay) did you have the engine out so the painter could get in there?
What about the other components in the engine bay? i.e. brake booster, M/C, etc. Where they taped up or did you paint that too?

I am thinking about just painting it black...

I guess I could assemble the car get it going and when it's time to paint the car, pull the engine/tranny but I would have a allot of stuff to tape up and be in the way of painting. But at least the painter would not be able to take the car for a joy ride.

[rustyBob]

That was all done when it went to the painter......my car was a running driveing car when it went to the painter......i just removed all the exterior pieces that he would have charged me to do BUT and heres the catch to getting my car painted, it was done by a guy who had painted several Cobras for the company that i got my car from so he knew what he was doing from the beginning and over spray WAS NOT an issue and should not be an issue if you find someone that knows what they are doing....

[Wisconsin_Snake]

rustyBob, I have been pondering this, but if your engine/tranny where in the car when the painter painted your ebgine bay, how did he ever paint the transmission tunnel ???

[tcrist]

Just get everything on the firewall mocked up ( without the body on). Take a picture of it so you know where everything go's, remove it and send it to the painter. Unless you are building a "show only" car, this should be fine. If you are building a "show only" car then you would not mind taking it all back apart again.

JMO,

[CobraEd]

I have a classic roadster and the engine compartment is painted black much like most production cars. Just get two cans of rustolium satin black and have fun!!! I know of no production cars that have the engine compartment/firewall painted in fancy colors. But then, what do I know !!!


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[rustyBob]

My engine bay is painted black.....i did it while the body was off the frame.....
the body is painted a bronze metalic.....they dont match color wise......

[CobraEd]

Also, the inner fenderwells are just rough unfinished fiberglass.


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