Engine painting help and tips
 

I hope this is the right section, I apologize if it's not

Gonna be painting some engine bay stuff but not sure how I should go about doing it. I'm gonna be doing the coil covers with VHT grabber green(?) engine paint, should I clear coat it? I'm in the middle cause they're kinda visible but kinda hidden

Then I'm gonna be doing the radiator cover and manifold plenum cover in black and clear coat, should I just clear over the black plastic or should I paint it black then clear?

And finally, the strut tower brace. My buddy thinks painting the whole brace in green will look good but I'm thinking just the plaque. Opinions?

:gunner:

The strut tower bar looks good done in green I will have my buddy post mine up on the facebook page

I posted it on the Facebook page

You can find the grabber green paint in o'rileys / Auto zone. I'd suggest sanding down the grain to give it a lot smoother look. Sand down 400 grit to take off the grain. Then hit it with 600, 1000, paint color, went sand 1500 paint, clear. You can take it a step further and do 3000 grit / polish but I never went to that extent. Here are some pics of what I have done so far. I actually am in the process of painting the letters in the coil covers right now. Bout to go out and sand it some more and clear.

I originally did mine in grabber blue but decided to change it up because everybody has it. Here I also just painted the color and no sanding.


http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa2181d9.jpg


Then I decided to go red and take it a step further to sand off the grain.

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...psea538d18.jpg

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4172eded.jpg


Here is a cruddy shot of Justin's grabber green I did. I'm sure he has better pics.

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4af00d4c.jpg

I wish this weather would cool down so I could finish my damn paint projects....

Re- huh?

Landshark it looks pretty good

Dan- I really like it sanded smooth and glossy like that. Shows more pride I guess you could say. I can already feel the soreness in my arms lol

Looks good

Wrinkle black for me would look gd.

I finished this week painting the recessed lettering and sanding off the over spray (I should have tapped off). I'll need a bit more red as I sanded a few areas a little too low. I'll spray some red then 1500 the entire surface for clearing.

End result:

Finished repainting some red then redid the black lettering.

Doing a rough tape off to prep for black paint on the lettering:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...psa7e71c16.jpg

Sprayed the black:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9c887a6f.jpg


Tape Removed:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8daac190.jpg

Sanded black over spray with 1000 grit:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps68c5b8cf.jpg

Sanding complete:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1ea61e1d.jpg



Final product after sanding the entire thing with 1500 and spraying clear:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4820f0af.jpg

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9e0c222c.jpg

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...psf6aaf0dd.jpg



There were some ever so slight rough patches I smoothed out by clay baring and polish.

Back on the car:

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5ab2d72.jpg

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0a991b2e.jpg

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8aa2cd00.jpg


Intake Plenum cover next. I've begun sanding on it already. It will have a mix of gloss red / black to it as well. I will also do the fuse cover in red as well. Then on to some interior pieces.

I like it.

Definitely interested to see how you paint the engine cover. I need help figuring out the correct order to paint mine in.

I'm going to leave it mostly black but with red accents.

Dan how much would you charge to do mine if I buy the paint? I have an extra set of coil covers so you can take as long as you need. I should also have an extra intake cover too soon **cough** phuck phace**cough**

Yeah, I may see if you'd like to paint mine too. :)

I'd have to think on this...

It takes several hours of sanding, prep, and painting, + materials cost. I know American Muscle sells them pre-painted ready to go for $100. However, they do not sand them smooth like I did and I'm not sure if they even clear coat. Most of my time spent is with sanding. If I do the recessed lettering It is even further involved as I have to do additional sanding / prepping.

So finally bought the paint a few days ago, think I'm just gonna spray it without sanding for now since I'm always busy. Then when winter break comes I'll sand it down and all that and redo it

Cool! Ya I've only started sanding a bit on the plenum piece. I've been busy with some other things. I plan to start working on it before the end of the year again. 80% of my free time is going into studying for a certification test I am trying to knock out. Once I am done with that I will have a LOT more time on my hands.

Good luck on your certification

I have a buddy who started doing painting so thinking about having him just do all the sanding for me lol. But at the same time I wonder if vinyl wrap would be easier cause less prep work