painting engine bay with motor still in it ?

[richard parker]

whats your guys take on this ? can you still get a good job done with the motor still in ?

[Dino]

Yes you can, but it's much easier with that hunk of iron out of the way!

I thought about doing this to my own car several years ago, just to get rid of that spray can black.  I have plenty experience sanding, masking, and painting so it would've been doable.  However you can only do so much prep with the engine in place and my engine bay needed a lot of prep.  If yours is in good shape and you're just looking for a color change then you can do this, but you still need to remove as much as possible.  Still you'll only get  a decent result whereas stripping the whole thing will get you a professional result.  Weigh the pros and cons before you decide.  It will take time, effort, and money no matter what route you go so decide on how you want it to look when you're done.  If you have the room you can lift the body straight off the engine and trans, leave everything on the K member.  That would be the easiest by far.

[BLK 68 R/T]

  Short of removing the motor, at least removing the exhaust manifolds, intake and heads will give you a ton more room to get to the inner fenders and firewall, but that is quite a bit of work. As Dino said just give it some thought on what results you are wanting and how much work you are willing to do. Remember nice looking paint is about 90% in the prep work and 10% in the actual painting.

[HeavyFuel]

Define 'good'.   And what condition is the engine bay in?

If no rust, basically a scuff and shoot, you can maybe get a half-assed job leaving the engine put.  But it you have body work, rust repair?   Forget about it.

IMO, you'd have to remove so many things from the engine/bay area in order to gain decent access to paint, that it would be less work to drop the engine and tranny out the bottom and then go to it.