Cleaning up engine bay for paint questions

No need to use an engine paint on the engine bay...use same as body (automotive quality).

If you sandblast rusty areas then you should not have to use a special rust paint. I guess I'm confused. I would use epoxy primer on the bare metal as mentioned above and then prime and paint as you would the rest of the car per paint manufactures recommendations. i.e., if you are using say PPG urethane single stage, you would look at the tech sheet for recommended primer surfacers...then you look at the primer surfacer tech sheet for what it recommends under it as far as primer and sanding grit. Ultimately, pulling the string as I described will start with a DTM (direct to metal) primer (most likely epoxy).

I'm not sure what color brake boosters were in the day but Eastwood sells a wide variety of paints for brake parts including a cadmium looking system.