Painting Engine Bay what material should i use? [Merged 10-7] paint

[InfiniteGSX]

Ok, the engine bay has to be the hardest. All that oil, grease... How do you guys prep the engine bay to hold paint, and what kind of paint would you use? I'm not going to totally strip my car to paint these areas. I just want to get them done good enough to hold black paint. Nothing special. What do you guys do to prepare for paint?

 

[redeclipse7782]

Spray it all down with an engine cleaner, wash, rinse, and repeat. Then scuff it down with a 3m scuff pad. Then soak a face cloth in rubbing alcohol and wipe down everything you want to paint. Once it dries prime what you want to paint, then paint. I recommend using a rubberized coating from advanced auto, autozone or some place similiar.

 

[InfiniteGSX]

So just normal sanding down every inch of it and stripping the entire bay. Maybe I'll just leave the car that ugly color.

 

[redeclipse7782]

You don't have to sand anything, just scuff it up with a 3m scuff pad.

 

[Blitzeclips]

Hey guys and gals, was hoping someone could help me out here. I am currently doing a wire tuck and moving some things around in my engine bay. Relocated the fuse box, ECU, sending some stuff out for chrome, moving brackets, etc.

While I've been doing this I have noticed the engine bay paint is very very dull and beat looking. The clear coat is chipping off, and at this point alot more metal is exposed then before (due to wire tuck).

Now I would like to paint the engine bay and spray it red to match to match my car, but I don't have:

a) Spray gun
b) any experience or training in painting
c) Nowhere else to roll the car into a booth

So here's my question. Are there ANY companies that offer factory OEM colors in a sprayable can? If I had a spray can I could just color sand then wetsand it and it would look like a spray job anyways. But I don't know where to get the paint in a sprayable form?

Does anyone know of any companies or suggestions here? There is a local place by my house that can match the color but I don't think they can put it in a sprayable form. Anyways ANY help or suggestions would be great. Thanks again!

 

[LaserX]

Most of your auto parts stores have paint for your car, just gotta figure out what color you need. I know on my 1g laser the color is radiant fire, matches perfectly with my paint, when i did the body work on my car. I'd try Autozone and stuff, and if you take your car there run out side with the can and see how the cap matches with your color, if your color is like mine then it'll be radiant fire if not then i have no idea. Hope this helps!

Fireshaker!

 

[turboglenn]

Sherwin Williams automotive stores can usually match any paint in a puff can. I paint for a living so i've had to go there a lot of times for custom color paint in a puff can. It's usually a bit chear than buying a quart at the autobody supply store, plus if you don't have the gun and a large enough compressor to run it, it would look like crap anyway and probably wouldn't hold up long.

My friend is wraping his entire car in carbon ( the parts he can't buy anyway) and he puff canned his engine bay with spray paint ( black to match teh carbon) Then i went over and took my guns and some 2 part clear ( that doesn't have a reducer.. (important choice when clearing over puff can paint ) ANd i cleared the whole thing for him. With the motor out it wasn't hard to do, but with yours in it's gonna be a pain.

 

[TSG59_Steve]

Car Touch up Paint,Spray Paint Cans. Automotive Paint by ExpressPaint.

Edit: I used them.

 

[Blitzeclips]

Wow, awesome. Thanks guys. You saved me ALOT of hassle!

I will post pics of the bay when I'm done.

 

[AndrewD5418]

Nobody has still answered the dudes question whether it is safe/ a wise idea or not to remove the padding against the firewall on a daily driven/weekend warrior. I am wondering this too as I have my motor out and I am going to be doing a bit of cleanup.

 

[syrushcw]

Can some of you post engine bay paint that youve done yourself. So far these are the way im debating doing it.
Sand
prime
wet sand
paint
repeat steps 3 and 4

The roller technique
No prime
Sand
paint
wet sand
repeat 3 4

Rattle can

I want to see what looks best.

Also in prepwork should I degrease before I sand? or just sand? Can the grease penetrate through the paint is that why I should use degreaser 1st?

 

[Splitpi]

I would first degrease, pressure wash, degrease some more, wash, then sand. Get as much crud off as possible so you arent wasting your time and sand paper sanding it off.

 

[jdmtrav]

OK i assume you dropped the motor and trans and have taken them out. Degrease the piss outta it. Wet sand with 400 grit or you can get a DA and use 180 or 200 grit if you wanna take it to origional primer or even metal. Then take care of any holes caused by corrossion, most people weld them shut and bondo them or you can use this stuff called All-Metal, it doesnt absorb water and swell like bondo will if its not completely sealed. Tape any spots off u dont want painted. Then after all the rought spots are taken care of, primer it with a laquer based primer. Wet sand with 400 until smooth and clean it. Lay down the base coat 2 to 3 light coats followed by a kinda wet coat and let it flash. After about 30 min and the paint is set up lay down the clear, 2 part urethane works awsome. Lay down about 5 semi-light coats and let it dry for atleast a day or 2. Wet sand with 1000 or 1500 grit and buff to perfection.

 

[syrushcw]

Degrease the piss outta it.

What if I sand it down to the bare metal?

 

[ihatedsms]

What if I sand it down to the bare metal?

To clean and degrese i would get a bucket and fill it with dishwashing hand soap and a scrub the crap out of it, then hose it all off, Make sure you get all the grease off before you start sanding.

You dont have to bring it down to bare metal, just make sure you sand the rough spots and make sure everywhere is scuffed and smoothed before you prime it.

Then prime and paint, you can make a spray can look awsome if you do it right. Or you can buy a cheap spray gun and get some duplicolor paint shop paint, it comes by the quart and is pre mixed and only like 20$ a quart and easy to spray.

 

[carbide]

I am one who really tries hard to have a nice, clean engine bay in my burgundy '92 Tsi AWD. I have eliminated a lot of stuff, and I'd like to pull the engine/trans to fills holes and repaint the engine bay. I cannot decide whether to paint it the same color, or to paint in a semi-gloss black (flat is too gray, I feel gloss would be too shiney). Any opinions? Anyone have any flat or semi-gloss black bay pics they could post up in this thread?

 

[carbide]

Everyone on my local forum, Mitsustyle.com, is suggesting keeping the same color. Any input from you guys would be nice!

 

[boostngsx]

Keep it the same color.

 

[mini zilo]

Ok well my engine is out for a rebuild along with the trans and just about everything else (wiring harnesses, etc.) so I wanted to take the opportunity to re-paint the whole engine bay.

I wanted to know if anyone has done this before when their engine was out. I will more than likely just be using spray paint since I don't have access to a gun or even know how to use one.

If anyone has any info for me on how they did theres, or pics, let me know.

When my trans was out, I repainted just one side of the engine bay with rattle can paint and it came out really good.

Last question is your opinion, do you think I should re-paint the engine bay the factory red w/clear coat, or should I do a different color? I was thinking of maybe doing the whole engine bay flat black, because I think that color is BADASS, but that's just me. What do you guys think? Red car with flat black bay?

Here is the pics of my previous rattle can job on the pass. side:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

 

[noonan98turbo]

I think flat back would look badass. The black would just make the whole engine sort of "pop out" at you. Plus I think it would match your valve cover nicely too.

 

[nwmedia2008]

I would go with the flat black. I just painted my mustangs engine comp black, it came out good. What I would do is sand the area so its smooth (if needed use body filler or weld a patch).After that is done spray really thin coats. I did about 4 or 5 coats then one coat of clear. The nice thing about spray paint is it is cheap and gets the job done. I can send some pics if you want.

 

[Captainredeyez]

I like how the red looks in there. I like to be able to see what I'm looking at too. Another good way to repaint it is, use a Wagner power painter. They work pretty good and it's a lot cheaper than a real gun.

 

[vanilla gorilla]

I would go back red. You done a good job laying down the paint on the passenger side. But please tape off things that shouldnt be painted like nuts/bolts, the top of the struts, etc, because that really looks shitty.

 

[MichaelSuch]

The rattle can job looks really good from the pictures, I wouldn't use expensive automotive paint and clear coat on it (only rattle can clear coat maybe, around here a gallon of clear is $225+, but of course you wouldn't need much). What I would do is just use some good rattle can paint (krylon, rust-o-leum), and make sure you prep the surface good (prepping is about 90% of how good the paint will look, an unclean surface paint will not stick to, and the rust and bare metal should be primer'd). Remember that if you really want to use the OEM Red, red paint is about double what any other regular color is...

 

[97 GSX 97]

Don't be the stereotypical person with flat black. Keep it clean and match it. My friend did the same thing you did while his was done and rattled canned it then put some clear on it. Do some wire tucking too and thta bay will be fresh.