Engine Bay

[nodemon]

I'm thinking about cleaning up / painting my engine bay. This would be a "temporary" clean up as at some point the whole car would get painted. Question, can I just do a light scuff and paint..? I have 2k hemi orange rattle can paint. Would I need to prime after scuff before paint.. or just go straight to paint after scuff..?

 

[Mattax]

See what the experienced paint guys say.
How well it will hold up depends on how well its prepped and the type of paint it was last sprayed with.

In the photo, the paint looks pretty good and matches the rest of the body.
I'd clean it and leave it unless there are problem spots.
Disadvantage of spray can enamels is difficult to control and minimizing 'orange peel' (ie bumpy textured finish).

 

[ESP47]

If it was me, I wouldn't touch it. That looks better than the majority of the engine bays out there. If you're going to wind up doing it the right way at some point down the line, I'd say it'll probably look more unnatural if you do a rattle can job right now. At least the way you have it, it matches the rest of the car.

I did my engine bay the right way a few months back and it was one of the least fun things I've done on a car. I wouldn't want to do that any more than I need to.

 

[JDMopar]

Looks like you’re doing a great job so far with cleaning. If it were mine, I would just finish cleaning every inch of it and leave it until you strip the car down to nothing for all over paint. Clean and paint the k frame black. Take the brake line across the firewall out of the tabs and clean it with a scotchbrite pad, and then clear that with a rattle can. You may experiment with hand buffing the fenderwells and firewall out, but be careful with your finger tips around spot welds. I’ve had a hunk jerked out of a fingertip before by a sharp place sticking up from the weld! Keep up the good work!

 

[nodemon]

Looks like you’re doing a great job so far with cleaning. If it were mine, I would just finish cleaning every inch of it and leave it until you strip the car down to nothing for all over paint. Clean and paint the k frame black. Take the brake line across the firewall out of the tabs and clean it with a scotchbrite pad, and then clear that with a rattle can. You may experiment with hand buffing the fenderwells and firewall out, but be careful with your finger tips around spot welds. I’ve had a hunk jerked out of a fingertip before by a sharp place sticking up from the weld! Keep up the good work!

Clean it and leave it until complete paint job is done seems to be the right, majority advice....and, not that it matters, but I was regretting getting rid of the yellow factory / assembly line "X's" and yellow thumb print on the firewall..
I will probably paint under and around the battery tray.. it's mostly bare metal and surface rust there.. After I paint it, I'll try and dull it out and give it a bit of a fake aged, patina look so it doesn't stand out too much.

 

[Mr. Sinister]

You really should paint it now, because once you have upgraded the engine’s condition and appearance you will regret not having painting it, similar to the flaw on your dash from one of your older posts. JMO.

 

[Oldmanmopar]

Do it once do it right.

 

[Mattax]

Clean it and leave it until complete paint job is done seems to be the right, majority advice....and, not that it matters, but I was regretting getting rid of the yellow factory / assembly line "X's" and yellow thumb print on the firewall..
I will probably paint under and around the battery tray.. it's mostly bare metal and surface rust there.. After I paint it, I'll try and dull it out and give it a bit of a fake aged, patina look so it doesn't stand out too much.

View attachment 1716088063

View attachment 1716088064

I had some Dupont acrylic lacquer from some time back and used it with an airbrush for touch up. The most difficult part was finding the matching thinner to use with it. Then made some test and practice examples. The engine bay had already been painted in the past so I also made some tests with thinners to see if was going to disolve the previous paints. Since your working with original paint, someone here will know what was used for what years. Lacquers generally will redisolve lacquers. Stuff like that is worth figuring out as it effects the approach and techniques you might want to use.