What would you do?

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'66Cuda

'66Cuda

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My 1966 Barracuda is painted Sublime color (see avatar). It is not even close to original anymore, after motor, tranny, & rear end swaps. The PO littered the inner fenders with ignition parts and then painted them (inner fenders) and the firewall black. Then they drew some weird designs in green. I had to take the motor out and I just couldn't leave it that way. I was just going to repaint black, but now I am not so sure. I will eventually repaint the entire car, but not soon. The Sublime paint is in terrible condition and the car has been painted at least twice. It could be a couple of years before it gets painted.

Do I decide on a color now and repaint the inner fenders in correct Mopar fashion, or quick fix it with black? Any one "been there and done that" have any advice? I am open to color suggestions as well. So what would you do?

Thanks
 
'66Cuda said:
Do I decide on a color now and repaint the inner fenders in correct Mopar fashion, or quick fix it with black?
Thanks
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At this point, either/or. Unless you know what color you want to go with, then I would do it in the body color now, saves work down the road if you're planning to pull the engine to do it..

Unless you can just clean it up temporarily with the engine in there, then just do the black for now.

I'm struggling with the same dilemma, I want to swap my engine out and paint the compartment while it's out. I just can't decide on a color. :banghead:
 
If you're just going for a driver quality paint job...and a color change, i would either take my time, and do a nice job blacking out the engine compartment, and then leave it black when you change the color, OR keep the hood closed and ignore what someone else thought was cool until you pull the engine for paint. Depends how much you hate the goofy pin-striping. If it's that terrible you can't ignore it, and you are set on a body color engine bay..then i suppose you could rattle can it for now. Just remember you will be stripping it back off when you go to paint it. On a non OE "resto" like this, i wouldn't mind a black engine bay at all. If my car didn't need inner fenders i would have just left it black. IMO about the worst looking thing you could do is paint the engine bay your new color, while leaving the rest of the car sublime for a few years.
 
I'm sort of in the same boat. My Duster was white and now all the body work is done and I'm ready for paint. My Engine compartment is still white. I'm thinking of leaving it white regardless of the color I go with. It looks super clean and I'm gonna do a white side stripe over whatever color I finally choose. And hey, there's some mopar history of white engine compartments...

65_Dodge-Coronet-Honker-DV-10-MB_001.jpg
 
The motor is already out and I have patched all the holes, and started the filler work. The "new color" with the sublime green for however long until the car gets painted, is one problem I was worried about. To add a another twist to colors, the 360 I am putting back in is already Chrysler red. I was going to do black on the inner fenders, but keep thinking about all the work it is going to be to pull the motor again to repaint "correctly". I am doing as good of job as I can do on the repair work. I can't stand shoddy stuff, which is how I got this problem in the first place! Maybe it just stays blacked out, and the car goes in the hot rod "category".
 
'66Cuda said:
The motor is already out and I have patched all the holes, and started the filler work. The "new color" with the sublime green for however long until the car gets painted, is one problem I was worried about. To add a another twist to colors, the 360 I am putting back in is already Chrysler red. I was going to do black on the inner fenders, but keep thinking about all the work it is going to be to pull the motor again to repaint "correctly". I am doing as good of job as I can do on the repair work. I can't stand shoddy stuff, which is how I got this problem in the first place! Maybe it just stays blacked out, and the car goes in the hot rod "category".
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I like that idea! the red engine, with the red car, but a blacked out bay would look cool i think! PLUS, you only have to do it once.

Here's a Camaro Bay with black inner fenders and core support.
 
if it were me. i'd paint the engine compartment the color i wanted to paint the car down the road. this way its done and done right and you gon't have to worry about it down the road. hell you are half way there already...


did it with my demon years ago.. car was yellow. i wanted to do it purple. so i drove it around with a yellow body, purple engine bay and orange motor..:)

Demonmotor.jpg


DSC00002.jpg
 
Black is a GM thing and (to me) looks tacky. If the engine is out, paint the bay the color you intend to paint the car. If you haven't made up your mind, resign your perfectionist-self to the fact you will probably wind up pulling the motor out yet again when you do paint the car. This is how we perfectionists roll.....
 
johnnymac2k6 said:
I like that idea! the red engine, with the red car, but a blacked out bay would look cool i think! PLUS, you only have to do it once.

Here's a Camaro Bay with black inner fenders and core support.
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Johnny, Your air intake system is super clean!!! It does take air from the cowl right???

treblig
 
Treblig said:
Johnny, Your air intake system is super clean!!! It does take air from the cowl right???

treblig
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I'm not sure if you're joking or not.lol This is just a google image...I have a sublime dart...not a red Camaro. sorry for the confusion lol
 
johnnymac2k6 said:
I'm not sure if you're joking or not.lol This is just a google image...I have a sublime dart...not a red Camaro. sorry for the confusion lol
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Oh WOW....Sorry!! I've seen Mopar dual snorkle air cleaners with connections to the cowl for fresh air but that pic you posted is even better.

Sorry for the confusion.

Treblig
 
I'm painting my engine compartment while my engine is out, but I got lucky. I'm eventually going with a dark charcoal (almost black) but it has a lot of blue and red metallic in it. I think it will look okay to most people even though the rest of my car is Maaco black. Hopefully everyone will be looking at my pretty engine and not notice that the inner fenders don't match the rest of the car. But then again, I don't really care either!
 
'66Cuda said:
The motor is already out and I have patched all the holes, and started the filler work. The "new color" with the sublime green for however long until the car gets painted, is one problem I was worried about. To add a another twist to colors, the 360 I am putting back in is already Chrysler red. I was going to do black on the inner fenders, but keep thinking about all the work it is going to be to pull the motor again to repaint "correctly". I am doing as good of job as I can do on the repair work. I can't stand shoddy stuff, which is how I got this problem in the first place! Maybe it just stays blacked out, and the car goes in the hot rod "category".
Click to expand...

abodyjoe said:
if it were me. i'd paint the engine compartment the color i wanted to paint the car down the road. this way its done and done right and you gon't have to worry about it down the road. hell you are half way there already...


did it with my demon years ago.. car was yellow. i wanted to do it purple. so i drove it around with a yellow body, purple engine bay and orange motor..:)

]
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X3 do it while it is empty, or you may never do it!
 
I would do a quickie black job, and when you paint the car, redo it with the same paint you spray the exterior with.
Why?
Because i bet it won't match in a few years anyway with the heat in the engine compartment, a different batch of paint, etc.
Black engine compartments don't look that bad anyway........
Or paint the exterior black and it's a win win situation!
 
Spend the time and paint it right.
It is alot of work, but pulling an engine is also.

opBPFj.jpg
 
when i see a red door i want to paint it black. lol but my engine bay will always match the color of the my body.
 
Yes, do it right while the engine is out in whatever color the body will be
 
i know its tabu to most but mine was black when i got it and i have no intentions of changing it because the interior is black and black goes with any color( body or engine) i ever decide to use
 
I started to multiple quote this thread but I got lost in the shuffle. I have the same dilemma as you. I don't know what color to paint my car. When I had my engine out for building I just couldn't see putting the new engine in the old crusty compartment so I sanded, primed , and painted it black (thinking I might paint the car black) Wrong! I have received so much grief from all Mopar guys because the engine compartments look the best body color. Regardless of the color I paint the exterior, I will have the engine compartment repainted anyway. If you are planning to repaint the outside, leave the underhood just like it is. You can change it all when you have the engine out. I am not a big fan of high impact colors on early A's. It doesn't look right. Good luck my friend. tmm
 
Thanks for all the replies. The ire of the "Knights Templar of Mopar" is certainly a force to be reckoned with! I appreciate the different opinions. Color choice is a tough one for me on this car for some reason. Everybody but the die hard Mopar fans love the green color. I hated it at first. I still don't like it, but I don't hate it like I used to. I think the car was the medium blue, originally, as that is the color in the trunk, and under the dash. It looks like it had a lot of metallic in it. It's like the car is searching for an identity.
 
Opinions and ideas are great and what you asked for. But at the end of the day it's ur car and ur call so do what you feel is best and fits ur needs and budget. If it was me I'd spruce it up some black and save the money towards getting rid of that outside color. Lol

Good luck man and keep us posted.
 
I swapped my engine, re-finished the engine bay while the engine was out, and I'm really glad I did it this way. Pick your body color. Then do it!
 

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'66Cuda said:
Thanks for all the replies. The ire of the "Knights Templar of Mopar" is certainly a force to be reckoned with! I appreciate the different opinions. Color choice is a tough one for me on this car for some reason. Everybody but the die hard Mopar fans love the green color. I hated it at first. I still don't like it, but I don't hate it like I used to. I think the car was the medium blue, originally, as that is the color in the trunk, and under the dash. It looks like it had a lot of metallic in it. It's like the car is searching for an identity.
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DD1 code? It will be on your fender tag. I like that color very much and it or a shade like it is my second choice. http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/paintChipCharts/_1966PaintChipCharts-01.shtml?load_img=2
 
If you know what color you want to paint your car in the future, go ahead and clean up the engine bay and shoot it.

If you don't know what color you want eventually, either black or sublime and plan on pulling the engine when you finally do re-paint the car.

Regardless of which way you go, suggest removing the 90º oil filter adapter to avoid scratching the passenger side fender, if you're doing the motor install from the top.
 
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