Custom Painting Engine

[topless82vette]

painting engine

since I am two toneing the exterior on my car, I thought it might look good if I painted the motor and engine brackets, we've decided on a color change though from 82 twotone blue to 81 autumn red/claret, my big question is how well would exterior paint used on the body stand up to underhood heat, I know about VHT paint and so on, however there colors are limited and theres no colors that look like the colors I want on my car, do any companies custom mix hi-temp paints.

My other thought was to either polish the front serpentine brackets or chromeplate them, has anyone here ever polished there own engine parts just curious how hard it is

 

[patsnitrovette]

i painted my blockwith sikkens brand automotive paint in 2002 electronblue the same as i painted the car in and then clear coated over it with high heat clear. works fine.

 

[topless82vette]

pats nitro

great website, also excellent job installing the f-body harness looks factory, anyways how has your paint stood up to the heat

 

[Twin_Turbo]

I personally like the plasti-kote paint better than the VHT. Seems to hold up better and the colors are nicer too IMO.

Marck

 

[Jack]

Re: painting engine

do any companies custom mix hi-temp paints.

Do you have a gun & compressor? If so ... pick just about any color you like ... have your local AUTO paint store mix it in ACRYLIC ENAMEL (DuPont Centari is great) auto paint. It'll work just fine on block, bracketry, heads & intake, vc ... it won't work on exhausts. Clear not required/needed unless you want super high gloss (such hi level probably not gonna be too noticeable on block-heads ... & it does tend to yellow over time). BTW, black is the best "color" for shedding heat from motor ... but not so important ... pick your color.
JACK:gap

 

[patsnitrovette]

Thanks,it works great so far ,ive never had it peel or discolor on other motors.

 

[billybob]

topless82vette,

I'm currently in the process of doing my own polishing, as you can see from the picture below these are the radiator hangers, one on the left was what it looked like originally one on the right it fully polished and clear coated.

I have done so many parts now that I cant even keep track without the original photos of what some of them looked like prior to the polishing.

I'll break it down into stages for clarity.

With approximate times for each step on the project pieces shown in the photo.

Cleaning

1) I start off with a wire wheel coarse to medium grit and get all the really nasty stuff off.

2 minutes

2) I then move down to a fine brass wire to help give it some shine and work out the deep cuts left by the hard wires.

5 minutes

Smoothing

1) After the cleaning phase I break out the buffing wheels, currently i'm using eastwoods emery compound with the 10" yellow spiral buff or the flap for the fast cutting and smoothing process.

5 -10 minutes

Buffing/polishing

1) I then move up to White rouge with a 10" canton flannel buff till I see a blinding shine

2-5 mins

Clear coating

1) I wash then dry the part to be coated and then spray it with 2 coats of Pelucid clear coat.

Thats it. pretty easy once you get past the initial investment stages, the wheels are cheap roughly 10 each, compounds 5 or so, buffing machine will run you anywhere from 50 - 300 dont skimp on this as you get what you pay for. The POR Pelucid carries a bit of a big tag aswell I think it was about 110 for a gallon but can be brushed or sprayed.

I generally spray alot of parts at one time with the little gun.

Bill

 

[billybob]

Whoops forgot to attach the pic, sorry

Bill

 

[sscam69]

WOW!!:eek

VERY NICE!! I can make my radiator hangers look like that?!?!:eek

Nice work BTW

FRank

 

[billybob]

Frank,

Thanks... its actually quite addictive once you see the results of the first part you do... you'll be scrambling around the engine bay looking at other parts you can take off and polish

Fun to do on those really cold days when you dont want to go outside and work on the car and heck I've even gone as far as doing the hood brackets, mounting hardware etc.

The choice was obvious for me, after seeing what a set of chrome hood hardware ran, I figured I would give it a go, lets just say I'm not going to be buying any chrome dress up soon :L

Bill

 

[sscam69]

Bill

You really have opened up my eyes to new possiblities. I have got to admit I wasn't to crazy about the chrome thing but I have been adding little parts here and there in my engine bay that are chromed and its starting to grow on me.

:L When I saw what you didI started thinking of ALL the other things that could be worked to that shine!!:L

Boy its going to take a LONG time to finish my project, I think you've got me hooked!!:L

 

[Tom Bryant]

I'm impressed! Even plain stamped steel looks good polished. Considering that the hand work and buffing is the most cost consuming part of getting things chromed you can drastically reduce the bill at the chrome shop by doing your own prep work.

Nice job.
Tom

 

[phoenix73]

I've got a bunch of POR 15 left over from the rear frame/suspension, so I called them to see if they would recommend it on the block.

Surprisingly, they said that it will hold up fine, but that if I want a glossier and easily brushed on color (even black) that they have an engine block paint that looks great.

I'm doing everything in the engine compartment black, for no other reason than it is easy, parts usually come in black and it will hide the dirt.

Check out their website for info.

www.por15.com

 

[drduckster]

engine conpartment

I bought a small plating kit last year, simply because the nearest plate shop is 100 miles. cost me about 600.00 but I have been able to plate small parts that I wanted for myself, alternator bracket, radiator hangers ect. the best part is after some of my classic car friends seen them, they want me to do some for them. I also had my local NAPA guy mix some CHEV orange that I can brush on for touch-up on my engine. Donald