What Color Engine Bay?

What color?


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75slant6

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Hey everyone, looking for some advice/opinions/ideas here. Now, I know most of you probably saw the title to this thread and instantly thought “BODY COLOR!!!” :mob: Lol. But, as y’all can tell by the pics of my car, that’s gonna be a bit of a problem.
:lol:
So anyway, I’m planning on pulling out the engine, trans, suspension from my Duster this winter to install an HDK suspension, new aluminum heads, and repaint the engine. Since I have zero intention of doing any exterior paint work (except *possibly* giving it the blackout hood treatment) on my car any time soon, I figure I may as well patch up a few holes in the firewall and cleanup/repaint the engine bay.

So here are a some pics.

See why I can’t go body color? :D
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This is what the engine bay looked like when I installed the 360 a few years ago. I didn’t prep the engine well enough and a lot of the orange is coming off/came off the engine already.
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One big reason I’d like to repaint the engine bay is I’d like to paint the engine AMC blue and I really don’t want a blue engine bay with a blue engine.
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Sooo.... here are the options I’ve considered so far.
1. Gloss black
2. Satin black (especially if I blackout the hood and tops of fenders)
3. Metallic charcoal of some kind

Alright, let’s hear those opinions. And I’m open to other ideas that I haven’t thought of yet.
 
Why not carry the "patina" theme into the engine bay?
Well, mainly because I’m not 100% sure how I’d do that.
I guess I could experiment with the “faux-tina” paint process and see how it turns out. Could always paint over it if it doesn’t turn out.
 
Randomly grind bare metal spots all over it. Pull the engine, and leave it outside all winter with the hood off. I mean, the outside looks like somebody randomly ground on it and left it bare metal. Hear ya go.
 
You can even add random spots of rattle can primer here and there to go with the rusty look.
 
I like moparmatt's idea^^^^^^^^^^
I hope you do realize I was joking. I am a perfectionist by nature, I couldent bear to do that. Every fiber in my being says pick a starting point on that duster and start stripping it to bare clean metal and seal it up with epoxy primer.
 
Sure would make it easier as far as keeping it “clean”. I washed my car once in the last year and couldn’t tell a difference!! The blue engine bay? Always looks filthy!
 
Just start sanding. you will hit at least two colors on the way. leave some of the blue ...then leave some of the primer color....spray some spots....sand on those....you get the idea.

Cool car man
 
My car is multicolored and unpainted and definitely has what people call a mad Max vibe.. they can see the dual quad sticking out but when I lift the hood you can tell they weren't expecting that....
I think whatever color you choose should be very contrary to what the color on the outside is and have a clean extreme impact.... That way when they look at the car they won't be expecting it...
 
My car is multicolored and unpainted and definitely has what people call a mad Max vibe.. they can see the dual quad sticking out but when I lift the hood you can tell they weren't expecting that....
I think whatever color you choose should be very contrary to what the color on the outside is and have a clean extreme impact.... That way when they look at the car they won't be expecting it...
Long term plan is to install a 6.4 Hemi or a Hellcat, so that’ll DEFINITELY take people by surprise!
:lol:
 
Cant wait to sandblast the **** out of this, prime and paint after I do the metal work. Found some holes to fix.

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I like the charcoal idea or a dark gray of some sort. I also like the gold idea ;)
 
My car is multicolored and unpainted and definitely has what people call a mad Max vibe.. they can see the dual quad sticking out but when I lift the hood you can tell they weren't expecting that....
I think whatever color you choose should be very contrary to what the color on the outside is and have a clean extreme impact.... That way when they look at the car they won't be expecting it...
That’s actually why I painted the engine when I swapped in the 360. I’d debated about just using as much of the ratty parts from the 318 as I could and leaving everything shabby and mismatched to continue the look of the rest of the car but at the advice of members on here, I decided to have the engine bay be something nicer to look at when the hood is popped.
 
That’s actually why I painted the engine when I swapped in the 360. I’d debated about just using as much of the ratty parts from the 318 as I could and leaving everything shabby and mismatched to continue the look of the rest of the car but at the advice of members on here, I decided to have the engine bay be something nicer to look at when the hood is popped.
For me I just sanded my hand a little bit and cleaned the engine bay the very best I could with degreasers and mineral spirits... Then I gave it a good rattle can prime and a rattle can paint..
Maybe next winter I'll be able to get the car painted and if I do I'll end up disassembling the car completely having the engine compartment sandblasted and of course painted the color of the car..
 
With that beautiful AMC blue, I think black for the engine bay will really make the engine pop. I would tell the haters to take a golden shower.
 
If your going for rat rod then engine and bay should follow.

Oil pan 67 engine red, timing cover corp blue, block hemi orange, overspray all over the aluminum heads.

Bay... Brake out the rust colored paint and hit all the typical rust areas, blast off a lot of the blue and full what ever is left.
 
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