Engine painting while in the car?

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GoldSwinger71

GoldSwinger71

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My lovely car was sold to me with someone attempting to dress up the engine compartment by re-spraying the engine with blue... FORD BLUE that is... :-(

What's the best suggestion for how I can safely strip off the underlying paint (there's some obvious areas where it had peeled and they just went over it), so I can apply POR-15 turquoise paint? I plan to just brush it on based on other people's experience.

Aircraft stripper and masking?
 
This motor was purple Painted in the car.

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I whould just remove the alternator and valve covers and clean them up separately, and with a wire brush and sand paper and carburetor cleaner touch up as necessary, wipe down with a light soapy water , rinse then mask carefully. Three or four coats of high-quality motor paint allowing dry time between each coat. I have used this technique many times with great results good luck

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Spray Painted it in the car. Laid some rags around tape some things off and took parts off. The pan was removed and painted. The sides of the block from underneath while the pand and starter were off. This was and old friend's car that I did without him knowing when it was here for repairs. He was amazed. Time. paper and tape anything is possible. I would use spray on engine paint .Spray just the engine down with Easy-off oven cleaner. Pressure wash then Get a wire brush on a drill. The longer you take prepping it the better the results. I did not remove the distributor. I put and old cap on it. You will get the paint into the areas better with spry rather then a brush.

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The last pictures are before we did the alternator and the electronic voltage regulator. When ever we took a part off we cleaned and painted the area and the parts. Little at a time.
 
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The only way I've ever done it is pull the motor and put it on an engine stand...
I would think by the time I did all that taping off and trying to clean it and all those odd weird positions and probably having to take the exhaust manifolds and the carburetor and everything off anyways at that point it's just put a chain on it pull it out and put it on the stand...
For me...
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Or for my wife...
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:thumbsup:...:D...:rolleyes:...
 
IF your car is already painted think about overspray or if you brush it like mentioned you are good!!! If the engine in already painted and yo are changing color scuff it, wipe it down with wax/grease cleaner and go!! The other guys already mentioned taking off alt, and other stuff!!
 
Not sure how well the por 15 will stick to an already painted surface. That stuff normally needs to be applied to bare rusty metal.
 
Just had a truck here on the lift that was POR15'd They did the whole chassis years ago. You could peel it of in long strips. We just repaintes my trailer with rustoleum for the second time. It was not peeling anywhere. Just all chipped up from use. We didn't do the fenders yet they are removable and were not on. The last picture is when we first built it 6 yrs ago. The faring was not installed then

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I must be super lazy, I've never imagined going through all that work to try and paint a motor in side the motor compartment...
 
j par said:
I must be super lazy, I've never imagined going through all that work to try and paint a motor in side the motor compartment...
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Different Strokes for different folks I guess, it's almost like a hobby for me. But I couldn't imagine put in a billion hours on a head Port LOL
 
K.O. SWINGER said:
Different Strokes for different folks I guess, it's almost like a hobby for me. But I couldn't imagine put in a billion hours on a head Port LOL
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Having the engine out in the wide-open is hard enough to get a good spray job in all the crevices and make it look nice. I just can't imagine trying to do it or clean it or tape it off still inside the motor compartment. That sounds like a major pain in the butt..
 
Heck my engines leak so IF I make it perfect today, tomorrow it won't look quite as nice anyway!!!!!!!! Sorta like driving an over restored car sitting in the garage under cover!!! lol
Key is having a clean surface to paint is key for naything. The exhaust maniforlds and other stuff hides a lot of non perfection!!!
 
A friend of mine recently switched from orange to blue in his Dart Sport. Like any painting, the key is the prep. Degrease, wash with soap after masking off.
 
GoldSwinger71 said:
My lovely car was sold to me with someone attempting to dress up the engine compartment by re-spraying the engine with blue... FORD BLUE that is... :-(

What's the best suggestion for how I can safely strip off the underlying paint (there's some obvious areas where it had peeled and they just went over it), so I can apply POR-15 turquoise paint? I plan to just brush it on based on other people's experience.

Aircraft stripper and masking?
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If you use Aircraft paint stripper - be careful. That **** is nasty and can cause health issues you cant get rid of. Use a fresh air respiratory even in a well ventilated area.
Stay away from Duplicolor engine paint, that paint is pure crap, I have been burned twice - never again. I understand Eastwood makes good engine paint, kind of expensive but hay if you only have to do it once it is worth it weight in gold. IMO
 
Oldmanmopar said:
Spray Painted it in the car. Laid some rags around tape some things off and took parts off. The pan was removed and painted. The sides of the block from underneath while the pand and starter were off. This was and old friend's car that I did without him knowing when it was here for repairs. He was amazed. Time. paper and tape anything is possible. I would use spray on engine paint .Spray just the engine down with Easy-off oven cleaner. Pressure wash then Get a wire brush on a drill. The longer you take prepping it the better the results. I did not remove the distributor. I put and old cap on it. You will get the paint into the areas better with spry rather then a brush.

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The last pictures are before we did the alternator and the electronic voltage regulator. When ever we took a part off we cleaned and painted the area and the parts. Little at a time.
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Did you use a chrome spray paint for the alternator? I'm worried about taking that thing apart and having it not work after putting it back together.
 
I just got done stripping, painting and detailing the engine in a 67 Corvette. No way would I ever have thought about doing that in the car. It was so much easier to pull it. Here's before detailing and after reinstalling.

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In or out of the car a ratty pair of old valve covers is a god end. Take the ones you are using off for extra care with new paint, bolt the ratty ones on and forget about taping the heads to protect the valve gear. Nicely cleaned and painted valve covers draw the eye from where things aren't perfect on the cast iron.
 
DentalDart said:
Did you use a chrome spray paint for the alternator? I'm worried about taking that thing apart and having it not work after putting it back together.
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No, I had a chrome alternator here I used the housing from . It came with this motor buy. I had to change the pulley and convert the car to electronic regulator.

The alternator comes apart easy. You need a special pulley puller and a press. Pull the pulley while together and press it back on while its apart so you can push on the shaft and not the housing. The brushes come out with one screw each. I usually take the alternator apart and clean the housing in the sonic cleaner but this time I had a housing here I wasn't using for anything at the time. If it would have been and early style housing I would have kept it for my car.

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Oldmanmopar said:
No, I had a chrome alternator here I used the housing from . It came with this motor buy. I had to change the pulley and convert the car to electronic regulator.

The alternator comes apart easy. You need a special pulley puller and a press. Pull the pulley while together and press it back on while its apart so you can push on the shaft and not the housing. The brushes come out with one screw each. I usually take the alternator apart and clean the housing in the sonic cleaner but this time I had a housing here I wasn't using for anything at the time. If it would have been and early style housing I would have kept it for my car.

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I have no clue what kind of alternator I have but it's just old and not as shiny. Since I'm painting the bay, engine and pulleys I figured if i could clean it up that would be nice. I dont have any special alternator pullers though so i might have to either figure something out or clean it best i can without pulling it apart.

Sorry about the pictures I'm not home and just cropped some of my other pictures that had my alternator in it. My AC unit is going to kill the look of the engine bay for sure...

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