Painting an engine bay

[73ChargerSE]

I'm going to be pulling the motor out of my Charger here pretty soon and start cleaning up the engine bay.  Do I need to remove EVERYTHING in the engine bay for it to be sprayed?  Should I just scuff all the paint or should I go down to bare metal and do primer and everything. I'm looking at a single stage acrylic enamel from NAPA that is $29 for a quart.  This should be enough for the engine bay, correct?  Anything else I should do?

[Silver R/T]

depends how good you want it to look. Id go with BC/CC system. Is the old paint peeling? any rust? I would go over entire engine bay with 180 grit D/A and then seal it and paint it.

[Charger-Bodie]

take EVERYTHING off sand blast it seal it and paint it.

[hemi-hampton]

I agree with 1hot68. Best way to go if you want a Quality look. Anybody can Earl Schieb/Maaco a car. LEON.

[Fitz73Chrgr]

We're doing the same thing right now.  We took everything off, but we didn't plan on sandblasting it.  I used a sanding pad on an electric drill for the entire thing, and I'm going to go back over it with something lighter, then fill in low spots.  I removed all the surface rust (there wasn't much). 

Is it necessary to sandblast it?  Will it look good with what we've done?  Also, when priming it, will spray can primer work?  I do want this car to look good, it will be going to shows. 

[Silver R/T]

I would not use any kind of spray cans on it. You want 2 part primer, one with hardener/activator in it. I prefer PPG's K36 primer.

[JR]

My advice is:

The more you remove, the neater and better detailed your engine bay will look. The contrast of different colored/plated parts is what most people see as a neatly detailed engine bay. Even though its a major pain, I'd remove brake master cylinder, bulkhead connector, wiring, linkages, wiper motor, etc.

First, degrease, and wash the engine bay out very, very thuroughly. Then once its dry, DA what you can with 180 grit. If the engine bay still has the original paint you wont' have to strip it all the way to the metal, but you do need to degrease it very well so you don't have oil contamination problems. Use 80 grit if 180 isn't cutting it well enough, but nothing rougher than 80. There are plenty of recesses on the firewall where you will just have to hand sand it. It sucks, its' tedious, and there's no way around it. And remember, feather ANY peeling paint, as anything rougher than 80 grit scratches, the primer won't be thick enough to sand out.

Now you need to clean it again, and spray the bare metal spots with a self etching primer. DO NOT use self etching primer on anything other than bare metal, as its an acid and it's only purpose is to etch bare metal for corrosion protection and its useless on anything elese.

Once you have consistently roughed up everything, use a high build primer, something like PPG K36 like Silver reccomended. After a couple of coats, and be sure to put plenty around edges and curves cuz it will be very easy to cut thru, let that sit for a couple of days. You can sand it after a couple of hours, but K36 likes to shrink and show sand scratches if you sand it too quickly.
Dust some flat black spray can paint over it VERY lightly as a "Guide Coat". This will help you see the light spots as you sand, and show you were you missed.
Sand it EVERWHERE with 400 grit by hand. You will now be cutting down the primer to a level surface, which fills in the 80 grit scratches and makes it slick.

Remember ANY grit sandpaper rougher than 400 grit on your final primer coat WILL SHOW SAND SCRATCHES. So use nothing rougher than 400 for your final sanding.

Once you have sanded everything, and you must sand everything you primed because paint won't stick unless the primer is sanded, wash the firewall with soap and water. Once it's totally dry, and it has to be totally dry as you don't want water to seep out of cracks and mess you up as your painting, degrease the surface with prep clean. It's a degreasing agent made specially for painting, anywhere you buy automotive paint should have it.

From this point on you can paint it with the acrilyc or urethane, but I would strongly reccomend a good urethane base/clear. PPG has a cheaper line caled "OMNI" that is a more economical version of their paints.  I would use that here.


I'm sure I missed something, but that is the major highlights, hope this helps. The main thing is just TAKE YOUR TIME. Theres no hurry. This is very tedious work, and if you start to get fustrated, just walk away. If you rush it, you'll see that in the end result.

Here's a pic of mine as it sits now. I only went down to  metal on the surface rusted spots, or where brake fluid had eaten the paint. Just take your time.

[Charger-Bodie]

just so there is no confusion "JR" the bolts for the fenders hinges etc should be body color and alot of the stuff thats black on youres should be plated in gold or silver not trying to nit pick just pointing these things out to help.

[JR]

Yeah, the previous owner put the fenders on with stainless allen head bolts, and I painted it with the fenders off.

Yeah, mine isn't correct, but I'm doing it for myself. I'm going to drive it so I didn't sweat the plating details really. Notice the silver painted gearbox and master cyl.

I just wanted to show the paint, and that technique applies for painting anything you don't have to block sand.

[Fitz73Chrgr]

Thanks for all the advice!

[Ricardo]

Search at Mopar Muscle web site, they have and article about engine bay painting.

[The70RT]

I have had mine blasted and epoxy primed. Should I sand or scuff before painting?

[JR]

Epoxy is hard to sand but you have to lightly sand the surface for the topcoat to stick right if it has sat a while.

If you care about minor scratches and pits that are in the metal naturally, just wet sand the epoxy with 320 or 400 grit paper, and spray a couple of coats of high build primer. Then sand with 400 and you can paint.

But I really don't think you will see much benefit from that so what I would do is guide coat the epoxy, and sand every nook and cranny with 400 grit. Spray any bare metal edges that you cut thru with a light coating of self etching primer. Just one thin coat.

Then wash out the engine bay with soap and water.  Be sure you get all the water residue out, as it likes to hide in cracks and then run down after you started painting.

Wipe it down with prep solvent, and it wouldn't hurt to go over it with a "tack cloth", which is just a sticky rag used for picking up dust before topcoating.

Then you can spray your base/clear, or whatever your using on top of it.

Just be sure you sand everywhere, no matter how hard or aggravating it is to get too, because paint won't stick to it if it isn't sanded.  Also, epoxy tends to gum up paper and takes longer to sand, but be patient. It'll be worth the work.

[Charger-Bodie]

I have had mine blasted and epoxy primed. Should I sand or scuff before painting?

epoxy should be scuffed VERY well and then another coat of epoxy then after thats ready (about 1/2 hr) spray paint then if clearing , clear it and call it a day

[The70RT]

I have had mine blasted and epoxy primed. Should I sand or scuff before painting?

epoxy should be scuffed VERY well and then another coat of epoxy then after thats ready (about 1/2 hr) spray paint then if clearing , clear it and call it a day

So no need to scuff the fresh epoxy if I spray 1/2 hour later?

[Charger-Bodie]

I have had mine blasted and epoxy primed. Should I sand or scuff before painting?

epoxy should be scuffed VERY well and then another coat of epoxy then after thats ready (about 1/2 hr) spray paint then if clearing , clear it and call it a day

So no need to scuff the fresh epoxy if I spray 1/2 hour later?

not when useing it as a sealer

[The70RT]

I have had mine blasted and epoxy primed. Should I sand or scuff before painting?

epoxy should be scuffed VERY well and then another coat of epoxy then after thats ready (about 1/2 hr) spray paint then if clearing , clear it and call it a day

So no need to scuff the fresh epoxy if I spray 1/2 hour later?

not when useing it as a sealer

Thanks

[hemi-hampton]

If using PPG's DP Epoxy Primer/sealer I beleive it say's you have 7 days before it has to be sanded. I would never waite 7 days but if I did I would scuff with red scotch brite anyways. LEON.

[The70RT]

I didn't mean to hi-jack the thread. Thanks GUYS!