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Under hood color combos

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spyderdrifter

10+ Year Contributor
5,267
711
Jul 11, 2009
Somewhere in, Colorado
so i've been trying to decide what all to paint, and what color to paint each to have a good look, but not make it sore to the eyes. i've seen one other post with this same basic concept, but not much shown. my car is midian silver and i've painted the engine bay satin black (heat resistant paint of course). i've painted some of the larger, flater brackets (i.e. cruise control, throttle pulley area, the front bracket holding the front bumper) all graphite silver, as well as my strut bar. my valve cover, thermostat housing, & water neck are also satin black, but i added a high temp clear coat to set them apart, yet match the bay itself. i'm thinking of adding a little bit of blue for contrast since the same color scheme runs through the interior with blue as the lighting. would like to know what other things i can paint in these various colors while keeping it all tasteful. all comments welcome, to include pics for ideas. i would post a pic of mine, but the engine/tranx still hasn't made its way back into the car. :dsm: :aha::idontknow:
 
I think yours should look pretty good! a nice clean sleeper look. some people really REALLY over do it and its just too much. I feel like I found just about the right combo but thats jus me. Here is a pic... eventhough its a 420a still same idea right?

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oh and my tranny is a nice silver now not chalky 15 year old aluminum LOL
 
I would say since you're going with an all black and silver theme, I wouldn't add blue. Obviously thats my personal opinion, but I would say keep it grey and black to not throw a wild card into the scheme. It wouldn't be "ricer" with the blue but I don't feel that it's neccisary. An all grayscale theme in the engine bay is very appealing to me. I went with all black engine and basically everything else, just to not attract all the odd shapes on this overwhelmed motor. White valve cover, fuel rail, and a couple other small white accents. Looks very clean. Just my opinion though!! Post some pics!

That looks clean, dsmcrzy! Paint the tranny next time it's out and it will look 100 times better I bet!
 
Well thanks for those ideas. I really hadn't concidered just not adding blue. Dsmcrzy, your bay does look good, but I do agree on cleaning the tranny when you're able. I scrubbed the crap out of mine just to get it clean, but was well worth it. And I do like the grayscale option. :thumb:
 
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The sky is the limit as far as what items you want to paint. Check out the engine bay gallery and this thread, http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appearance-interior-exterior/383408-show-me-your-clean-engine-bays.html, for more ideas if you haven't already.

I painted mine Charcoal Grey (VC, IM, BOV cap, intake pipe, CAS cap, radiator cap) and kept a bunch of stuff polished (Intercooler pipes, radiator, VC & IM letters, heat shield, oil fill cap, spark plug cover). Plus of course there are serval items which are red (AFPR, spark plug wires, motor mounts, battery) but that's just how they are, I didn't paint them. I really like how it turned out and I haven't seem many others with the same color so it's more unique.

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Well thanks for those ideas. I really hadn't concidered just not adding blue. Dsmcrzy, your bay does look good, but I do agree on cleaning the tranny when you're able. I scrubbed the crap out of mine just to get it clean, but was well worth it. And I do like the grayscale option. :thumb:

Thanks guys :thumb:

And it is a nice silver now just need to take new pictures LOL and clean out some ac lines and all that. I agree though, with staying on the gray scale path like you are.

Cant wait to see it man!
 
you could take a picture of your current engine bay and play around on paint and see if you come up with ideas.
 
I think yours should look pretty good! a nice clean sleeper look. some people really REALLY over do it and its just too much. I feel like I found just about the right combo but thats jus me. Here is a pic... eventhough its a 420a still same idea right?

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oh and my tranny is a nice silver now not chalky 15 year old aluminum LOL

I like this color scheme, IMO try adding a bit of red around the outer parts of the engine bay, just to even things out bit.

But to the op, just experiment with colors and only you can decide what looks best. For example, my talon is green with gold wheels, but in my engine bay I have replaced all the vacuum hoses with RRE's kit and their red. I'm sticking with red and gold under the hood, mostly gold just because I don't want my engine bay looking like a dang Christmas tree. LOL
 
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hows this its not finished yet
 
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'STOCK' appearing red/black. I was at the local 1/8th mile track and a HUGE local Mustang club showed up, I was the only import running that day too. I was sitting in my car waiting for the inspector to come by and tech me and the whole Mustang crew passed by, I saw them looking around my engine bay for a few seconds and then I hear someone say "its stock." Since there were so many Mustangs there I was lucky enough to line up against one that had NOS tagged on the window from tech and had a big set of Hoosiers on the back. Here I am with street tires and "stock" under the hood so I'm pretty sure he though he was going to embarrass me, didn't happen though since I ran a 7.6 @ 98mph and he ran a 7.9 @ 88mph...

Sorry for my short story but to the untrained eye you should make it look as 'stock' appearing as possible.

:dsm:
 
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'STOCK' appearing red/black. I was at the local 1/8th mile track and a HUGE local Mustang club showed up, I was the only import running that day too. I was sitting in my car waiting for the inspector to come by and tech me and the whole Mustang crew passed by, I saw them looking around my engine bay for a few seconds and then I hear someone say "its stock." Since there were so many Mustangs there I was lucky enough to line up against one that had NOS tagged on the window from tech and had a big set of Hoosiers on the back. Here I am with street tires and "stock" under the hood so I'm pretty sure he though he was going to embarrass me, didn't happen though since I ran a 7.6 @ 98mph and he ran a 7.9 @ 88mph...

Sorry for my short story but to the untrained eye you should make it look as 'stock' appearing as possible.

:dsm:


Love the look.
 
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mine is a work in progress, i need to tuck some wires, i'm getting almost everything powder coated black like cam gears, my FP intake, PS reservoir ect. im also going to a TS manifold with twin Tial MVS's in black but i will be leaving the VC and intake red
 
My advice is to pick 2 colors for your scheme and stick with them. I think the silver and black look great together, so I would just try to stick with those two colors. Maybe add more silver accents to the bay.
 
Sorry for my short story but to the untrained eye you should make it look as 'stock' appearing as possible.

:dsm:

I agree especially in California :thumb:
 
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'STOCK' appearing red/black. I was at the local 1/8th mile track and a HUGE local Mustang club showed up, I was the only import running that day too. I was sitting in my car waiting for the inspector to come by and tech me and the whole Mustang crew passed by, I saw them looking around my engine bay for a few seconds and then I hear someone say "its stock." Since there were so many Mustangs there I was lucky enough to line up against one that had NOS tagged on the window from tech and had a big set of Hoosiers on the back. Here I am with street tires and "stock" under the hood so I'm pretty sure he though he was going to embarrass me, didn't happen though since I ran a 7.6 @ 98mph and he ran a 7.9 @ 88mph...

Sorry for my short story but to the untrained eye you should make it look as 'stock' appearing as possible.

:dsm:

ha ha ha.. i love it. i hate mustangs so much good times :thumb: i've actually looked through all your pics and i've oved how your bay looks. i think i'll go with what you and the others have mentioned by sticking to the 2 colors i've already used. i do love the stock look and how it can be misleading to the untrained eye of the on lookers. thanks to all of you, i'll get pics up once i get the engine back in the bay. :dsm:
 
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'STOCK' appearing red/black. I was at the local 1/8th mile track and a HUGE local Mustang club showed up, I was the only import running that day too. I was sitting in my car waiting for the inspector to come by and tech me and the whole Mustang crew passed by, I saw them looking around my engine bay for a few seconds and then I hear someone say "its stock." Since there were so many Mustangs there I was lucky enough to line up against one that had NOS tagged on the window from tech and had a big set of Hoosiers on the back. Here I am with street tires and "stock" under the hood so I'm pretty sure he though he was going to embarrass me, didn't happen though since I ran a 7.6 @ 98mph and he ran a 7.9 @ 88mph...

Sorry for my short story but to the untrained eye you should make it look as 'stock' appearing as possible.

:dsm:

Looks really nice, nd "stock" appearance haha
 
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Going to be going with black and purple :D
 
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