Blog Title: $800 dsm

My build/resurrection of a 1990 Tsi AWD

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Panda Painting

Posted 09-06-2011 at 11:09 PM by EZSpeed

After a few days of work, I've got a couple things done that I'm happy with. I wanted to take some things out of the engine bay to clean them up and paint them. First up was the throttle body, which I showed off in my last post. Here's a lousy shot of it painted.

Flat black, I guess I forgot to take some more. Oh well I'll add them tomorrow. Next up and a huge achievement for me, I took off the intake manifold! I used ratcheting wrenches to get it off, a little trick I learned on here, and ohmygoodness they saved my life. No way would I have gotten it off without those.

NASTY!

After a lot of washing:

Next up was the valve cover.

A shot of the cams, HKS 272/272. I don't know much about cams, you guys got any info on these for me?

Adjustable cam gears too, again, not too sure what the dealio is with these so I'd appreciate any info!

I washed the intake manifold and valve cover, but I was still unsure of how to get some paint to stick on it. Flat black always looks so good, but I didn't want to leave them black, so I used it as sort of a primer.

I wanted to continue the panda look in the engine bay too, so I decided to do gloss white and flat black. After taping off the parts I wanted to keep black:

And then the white paint begins:

The throttle body elbow came out pretty good

But I need to do some touching up on the valve cover and intake manifold.

My tape job wasn't too good, so instead of sharp lines between black and white everything looks kinda fuzzy. Oh well. Tomorrow my plan is to finish putting it back together, touch it up a little, then try to start it! I still haven't gotten it registered so I've still got a lot of time to get it exactly how I want it before I start driving it around. Stay tuned!

-Ed

Posted in DSM Project Car/Build Updates

Views 2565 Comments 28

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Total Comments 28

Comments

	I would have left it black myself, or started over. Don't be lazy :P
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 01:50 AM by Kalub

	Caca
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 02:14 AM by goodbuds

Here's a little trick for doing the letters. Since the letters (high spots) are going to be in white, paint the entire piece in white. Since the low spots are going to be black, paint the entire piece again in black.

Then use a sanding block with 800-1000 grit paper and sand the black off the high spots. Once you get most of the black off, switch to 2000 grit paper for a nice shine.

The lines on the intake are a little more difficult. Before sanding those, put masking tape where you want the white to stop, then sand away. The tape gives you a nice straight line.

Posted 09-07-2011 at 03:52 AM by SrKegler SrKegler is offline

	I've also used vaseline to control what gets painted and what doesnt. spread it on thin before you paint, do your painting, and when its dry, just wipe up the areas where you had vaseline, the paint should come right off.
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 06:22 AM by tmaxx411

	You did everything backwards, it would be much easier to first paint everything white. Then cover everything with tape and take an exacto knife and neatly cut out all of the letter and lines. Lastly spray the black paint.
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 06:42 AM by Silver99OZ

	i second the exacto knife. Use that to cut your tape and it will give you crisp lines. Start over, please don't leave it like that.
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 06:50 AM by 9!'clipseDOHC

	ill give you an A+ for effort but that thing needs redone=) sorry man.
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 08:37 AM by Awdspyderman

	I agree with the others. Kudos for the effort, but I see a few problems with your bay. 1) Spray paint isn't going to hold up too well in your engine bay. (powder coat is what you want for longevity) 2) The fuzzy lines look like poo. 3) The white is going to get dirty/oily pretty quickly. Good luck with the build though! Btw, flat black engine bays kick ass!
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 05:46 PM by nicknorth11

	that looks like poop. i declare a redo
	Posted 09-07-2011 at 07:07 PM by 1gdsmftw

	i think it looks good
	Posted 09-08-2011 at 07:11 PM by 4g63fast

	Best way I have found to paint these sorts of things is by hand painting it.
	Posted 09-08-2011 at 07:27 PM by 99eclipse420

	polished letters but kinda like the one above ^
	Posted 09-09-2011 at 02:10 PM by Chris_92TSi

	A for the idea fail for the effort. redo it while you can. dont leave it a disaster like that.
	Posted 09-09-2011 at 02:24 PM by 3kgt2nv

	theres no way you would want to leave it like that, also i would of not even posted the pics if it wasnt a success.
	Posted 09-10-2011 at 04:33 PM by born2tune

	Dang guys I said I'd touch it up. Thanks for the concern that I would leave it looking awful like that but no way. Here it is after some hand painting, which came out nicely. Good call 99eclipse420.
	Posted 09-10-2011 at 06:48 PM by EZSpeed

	Sloppy. Pay someone else to do it.
	Posted 09-11-2011 at 07:07 AM by empie1

	I agree that it should be taken off and redone. But just go with flat black. You have too much going on here it doesn't look good even if it was done with the straitest lines possible, it still look bad.....
	Posted 09-11-2011 at 07:37 AM by nrwtrn6492

	it came out good man it takes time an patience
	Posted 09-11-2011 at 09:44 AM by AUTOMODSGST

	Little Debby Zebra Cakes anyone????
	Posted 09-12-2011 at 01:15 PM by Jon91TSi

	It still looks horrible =/ I can see all the blotches and crap around the lines and letters........
	Posted 09-15-2011 at 07:38 AM by 1gdsmftw

	it looks better, but still CaCa.. maybe you should have pressure washed your engine bay before you tried to tackle this venture.. Your engine Bay Looks like it has had the Diarrhea's sense the Easter's.
	Posted 09-15-2011 at 08:22 PM by goodbuds

	I'm sure he will get to the rest, you had me concerned at the original attempt. but the touch up looks much better, could still use a little more attention. but i can honestly say i have never seen this scheme before and i think your initiative is great. just needs a little more.
	Posted 09-15-2011 at 10:28 PM by compression

	I like it!
	Posted 09-16-2011 at 01:00 AM by jackblack65

	deffinetly think you should have just left all those parts flat black.... would have looked ten times better and will last longer... I give that white a day or two before it turns yellow and gets oily fingerprints and dirt on it....
	Posted 09-18-2011 at 04:37 PM by DSMer541

Support?

This comment is not intended towards anyone in particular and will sound bad. If anyone takes it that way then I'm sorry. I've always seen DSMTuners as a place where other DSMers and enthusiast can come and show their work and get constructive criticism/learn. This guy was obviously just wanting to let others see his work and get some input. He even stated that he "needed to touch it up." So lets try to be better than some other car forums out there. We're all entitled to our opinion but if we're going to criticize someones work then at least give something he can use to better it.

Obviously his first attempt wasn't as much success as he wanted....He knew that and so did we (if we read through his post). He did a decent job of fixing it in the end.

My input. I do agree with some of the others that the white might not be a good choice UNLESS you plan on having a non leaking VC gasket and wipe it down every so often or anytime you touch it (it will attract dust/grease/fingerprints/etc). I also agree that the spray paint wont last as long. For now if your happy that's what matters. You can always take it off and redo it later. From experience, I've found powder coating is the way to go (I learned myself). Very durable and easy to clean. Rethink the flat black idea; nicknorth11 pic shows how great it can look.

Keep up the hard work, eventually it'll pay off. Skills are perfected over time as well as any DSM. And again sorry if I offended anyone.

Posted 09-18-2011 at 10:03 PM by DSM98GSX DSM98GSX is offline

	Very nicely done! Looks great.
	Posted 09-22-2011 at 03:40 PM by TSiAWD96Talon

	Well said DSM98GSX
	Posted 09-24-2011 at 01:48 PM by d_rock10030

	looks alot better then it did, thats all that matters imo.
	Posted 09-25-2011 at 09:00 AM by Love4boost