General Lee engine bay

[1965gp]

Looking for some advice here- I am part way through my General Lee build and am deciding how to do the engine bay.

Even though most of what I have worked on is Pontiac, I clearly understand that Chargers should have a painted engine bay. I even pulled the motor on the 68 I worked on for my father in law to make sure it had the correct red engine bay to match the car.

The car is recently painted and they did shoot the engine bay, it came out okay.

So after researching I have learned there are a lot of 'rights and wrongs' about building a GL clone. I bought what seem the best decals for an early season 1 or 2 car. I bought the right narrow push bar and am going to go with the correct darker tan interior for an early car.


So- my first instinct was to keep the engine bay orange and detail the best I could- paint the engine Chrysler blue.

After looking at the cars the Smith Bros have done and the clips I can get from the show the engine bay they show on TV is clearly black with an orange engine.

It would be easy to sand it and paint it black- and I could just touch up the orange motor that's in the car already.

To be correct as possible it appears the engine bay should be black. Now is that going to piss off the Mopar loyalists? Will people roll their eyes when they see it and I will have to explain my reasoning?

Maybe I shouldnt care- just don't want to hear 'a chevy guy must have restored this'.

Any advice is appreciated.

First post so thanks in advance,

Jeremy

[OleHarleyRider]

Most keep it orange, others black it out:

http://www.cglfc.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1834

[JB400]

I say it's your personal preference.  The hero GL's had the black engine bay while the stunt cars had whatever the original color  of the car was.  Personally, I think the orange engine bay looks cleaner than the black version.

[Mike DC]

The GL has a perfect excuse to keep a satin/semigloss black engine bay - the fictional car was a scruffy black Charger before the Duke Boys painted it orange.  


Season#7 opening episode, "Happy Birthday, General Lee" -  



---------------------------------

I always vote to take this perfect excuse and make the engine bay semigloss black.  It's SO MUCH easier to keep looking nice than orange.


The amount of remaining orange in the engine bays on TV varied.  The most common setup on the two designated closeup cars was black engine bay, black underside of the hood, and only the very top edge of the upper rad support was orange.  But a few times the underside of the hood was orange and the whole upper crossmember of the radiator support was orange too.


The top of the grille frame (the big sheetmetal plate where the hood latch & impact spring is mounted) was chrome on the main closeup cars, and so were the hood hinges.  Getting the grille frame chromed like that basically means cutting it apart & bolting or welding it back together afterwards to make the chroming process practical.  I had one plated years ago but I don't think I would bother doing it again.  (These days there are some legit-looking chrome paints out there, although they aren't cheap or easy to use.)  It's also a major PITA to keep that top plate looking good because you can't set tools or anything on it anymore, ever.  

---------------------------------------

As for "A Chevy guy must have restored this" - Get used to it. 

The same principle is true to some extent with most muscle cars but it's even more true with GLs.  No matter how you build it, there will be a bunch of people informing you that you did it all wrong.  No matter how you do it. 

I'm not just talking about the color of the engine bay either.  I've heard people say that the GL was everything from a '66 Challenger to a Pontiac Catalina.  It's also common to hear that the door handles should be shaved off, or it should be a stick shift, or it should have a Hemi, or the interior should be black, etc. 


The best you can do is keep a few freeze-frame stills of detail shots from the TV series in the glovebox.  If you feel inclined to prove your point to some joker then you can whip them out. 

[Kern Dog]

The cars used in the series were just screwed together by a production company with no regard to correct restoration techniques. If it is your goal to make the car as "correct" as the TV show cars were, you have the freedom to be sloppy and NON OEM correct. Krylon painted engine bay, wrong engine color, valve covers, radiator, etc. To me this is a half assed way to build any car except for a race car with SPEED being the ultimate plan.
I embrace the habit of "restoring" a car to the level where every aspect of the car is brought to the best condition that is possible. To me that means glossy paint with no orange peel. Also a correctly painted, body color engine bay, tight and consistant body panel gaps and a stance with the nose down about an inch. This is not necessarily factory correct but I see it as a product that the factory could have done if they wanted to.

[jaak]

Another option is... leave it be. Seriously more Generals than not simply had their engine bays as left from the factory. On earlier episodes they showed several cars on screen with green, copper, white (and other colors, I'm sure) engine bays. But I personally wouldn't do that.

I'm sort of struggling with the same thing right now, as a Mopar fan, I absolutely can't stand a black engine bay. But since my Lee is going to be a driver and the fact it is a budget build, and one day when I'm tired of the General, I may do a color change, I am thinking about doing my engine bay black. I have 2 quarts of single stage satin Urethane on my shelf right now, so I have thought about going ahead and shooting the engine bay with it, and going ahead and dropping the engine in.... but then on the other hand an orange engine bay would look great.

Decisions, Decisions.

Jason

[Brightyellow69rtse]

personally id do it orange. i repainted my engine bay a couple years ago. i was thinking of doing black aswell but i opted for going body color which is almost an exact match to the new style camaro yellow. its like bumblebee from transformers.

[XS29L9Bxxxxxx]

Leave it body color  then paint the rest of the car orange

[c00nhunterjoe]

The joy of general lees is that no two are alike. Whether its what you see onscreen, see in 2nd unit footage, or see at dukes fest. Everyone is different. So build yours however you like. No matter what you do, the fans will tell you its wrong, mopar people will tell you youve destroyed a charger, and everytime you turn you back to answer the "does it have the horn" question, someone will slide across your hood.....      

[Cooter]

The joy of general lees is that no two are alike. Whether its what you see onscreen, see in 2nd unit footage, or see at dukes fest. Everyone is different. So build yours however you like. No matter what you do, the fans will tell you its wrong, mopar people will tell you youve destroyed a charger, and everytime you turn you back to answer the "does it have the horn" question, someone will slide across your hood.....      

[1965gp]

Well I am glad that there doesn't seem to be a wrong choice on this.

I'm still torn. The point about the upkeep being easier with the black is a good one.

[Dreamcar]

I think I changed my mind four times in writting a reply...but I think black would win for me. The close-up cars had black, it fits the story line, and is easy to maintain. Besides, I doubt any real GL's actually on the show had the engine bay painted orange when they were built. And, if you're worried about the Mopar puriest, well you probably shouldn't be if you're building a GL.

[myk]

The joy of general lees is that no two are alike. Whether its what you see onscreen, see in 2nd unit footage, or see at dukes fest. Everyone is different. So build yours however you like. No matter what you do, the fans will tell you its wrong, mopar people will tell you youve destroyed a charger, and everytime you turn you back to answer the "does it have the horn" question, someone will slide across your hood.....      

Post of the day!

[1965gp]

That's a very good point- most mopar purists aren't going to like the car anyway.

I agree it is hard to make a choice but you make a really good point

[Cooter]

So? Coonhunter, you never posted the stupid comments from the cruise in the stupid thread.....

I gotta couple Sat. At the cruise too.....

[c00nhunterjoe]

Well I am glad that there doesn't seem to be a wrong choice on this.

I'm still torn. The point about the upkeep being easier with the black is a good one.

Well look at it this way:
1: According to the show, the car was black before the dukes got it. If you stay true to the show, im sure cooter didnt spend the extra money to redo the engine bay so its black.
2: a few u derhood shots in the series were krylon'd gloss black.
3: the infamous Lee 1 was bronze (or gold) whichever; you get the point im trying to make. Lol
4: a few other series underhood glimpses were random body colors.
5: a true "mopar" general lee restoration would be your shade of orange body color.

Whatever you choose, you are both right and wrong so browse tge internet at general lee underhood shots and pick the version that YOU like and screw all the haters!!!!

And if you really want to spark a war...... ask what the correct color orange is!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[1965gp]

God no! Everyone knows it was Corvette Flame Red....

Seriously- dukes fans are worse than corvette purists! I guess it's good and shows genuine interest. I am very glad I started doing some research though. My initial plan would have been to paint it hemi orange and use the Phoenix Graphics kit. Happy with what I've got so far even if I have received hate mail about the reproduction vectors!

I wanted the motor to look like the one in the show so I guess it makes sense to go with a black engine bay- the maintenance is a huge upside to it.

[Mike DC]

 
Yep, black is a helluva lot easier to keep clean.  Especially if you go for more of a satin black, not fully glossed.   

[Dreamcar]

Happy with what I've got so far even if I have received hate mail about the reproduction vectors

OMG...seriously?!

[c00nhunterjoe]

Contact crazy c for decals. Best of the best and good prices.Crzycutter01@aol.com . I got mine from him and couldnt be happier. He has all versions from georgia through the end of the series, reunions and movie.

Flame red, hemi orange, big bad orange or a magic mix of whats on the shelf... they are all correct and wrong...lol.  fwiw, mine is kubota orange..... 

[1965gp]

That's who I got my decals from- they look fantastic. He was a wealth of knowledge when it came to picking the colors and style for the 01/flag.

Yea I have already had a few people tell me my wheels are wrong. They don't have the edge around the outside of the rim like the originals.

Well- back to fiberglassing the grill.... Hoping to get the engine compartment and grill done next weekend.

[c00nhunterjoe]

That's who I got my decals from- they look fantastic. He was a wealth of knowledge when it came to picking the colors and style for the 01/flag.

Yea I have already had a few people tell me my wheels are wrong. They don't have the edge around the outside of the rim like the originals.

Well- back to fiberglassing the grill.... Hoping to get the engine compartment and grill done next weekend.

Post pictures and progress

[Mike DC]

It would probably not cost a lot to have the lip of the new Vectors machined to match the originals.  Plenty of wheel refinishers could do it.  



Kubota Orange?  

Heh, heh, heh . . . I've looked at that color at the Rural King stores and thought, "Somewhere out there, there has gotta be a General lee painted with that."  

It's actually a pretty good color for a General IMO.  

 

[Charger-Bodie]

I can't say either way about which color you should go with , but can someone enlighten me on how black is easier to maintain and or keep clean?

[Mike DC]

 
Glossy black on the exterior body?  It's not any easier.


Satin black in the nether regions of the car?  That's a different story. 

[Charger-Bodie]

 
Glossy black on the exterior body?  It's not any easier.


Satin black in the nether regions of the car?  That's a different story. 

Yeah, I don't see it. I've many cars in many colors. When their dirty their dirty. If the prep is done correctly there is almost zero maintenance , whatever the color.

[1965gp]

I think semi gloss black is just easier to touch up. Spray it down with some tire dressing and your good for the cruise in.

Here is a pic of when I picked the car up:




This is when they painted the jams and shot it with gloss so we could find all the dings and dents:


After I got it home:




And today after pulling the grill out:

[c00nhunterjoe]