Hot Rods PAINTING YOUR ENGINE

I guess I kind of broke my own rule this time. I just painted my engine for my coupe Chevy Orange.

 

Trying something new for me, gold engine paint. Putting the mystery 283 on the test stand this week. Hopefully will get it broken in soon. The old engine will get a little more detailing before being installed into a roadster.

 

OH this brings back a memory from when I was 18 and rebuilding the engine in my 55 Metropolitan rag top.
My mom and sister were headed off to do some shopping at a store that had an automotive section and I asked them to pick me up a certain color of engine paint that I knew they had in stock and when they came back they brought me a can of black engine paint because they had decided that it "matched" the color of the car better than the color I had asked for.

 

Just trying to make it look like it did back in the day! 62’ valve covers, new crate heads ground and filled to look like camp bumps and a points distributor. It’s OK the body is fiberglass!!

 

Just painted Tony Ray's 283, for his shoebox Ford (build is here on the HAMB) Mayan Go ld Candy!

 

This thread is timely, after spending so much time in the Traditional Engines thread I've really been thinking about engine color a lot and considering what to do with the engine in my A pickup, which currently is painted black. It seems to me, and confirmed in this thread, that black engines kind of just disappear. The cast iron grey blocks may be slightly better, but they also tend to just disappear. Chevy Orange is OK, for those trying to maintain a stock engine appearance, but it doesn't really say hot rod to me and I don't think it would work in this pickup, the colors would clash terribly. It seems like you need a color that pops, and it really makes a huge visual difference. Gold is good, really any bright color makes the engine pop visually. But it needs to be gloss IMO, a flat color isn't much better than black. I considered body color, but in a previous thread I was discourage to do that by others; but good ol' FalconGeorge set me straight in this thread, thank you George! Krylon Shimmer Metallic Blue is will be!

 

FalconGeorge also said something about the lions getting you.

 

Base coat, clear coat catalyzed urethane. End of story.

Or powder coated like these three.

 

White doesn't seem to pop like the brighter colors, but the engine doesn't disappear visually with white, and it sure looks clean. Nothing says clean machine like a white engine.

 

LOL!

Ben

 

I recently painted the engine I'm putting in my 61 Olds. It's a new GM 350/290hp crate engine, just basic black from the factory.

First wiped it down well with lacquer thinner, then went over EVERYTHING with red scotch bright to put a little tooth in the base material. Sprayed it with a couple coats of HOK KD3000 white mixed (I think) 4:1:2 as a light build sealer, then hit it with several coats of S2-02 celestial white with an effects pack for the "coconut creme" color, which is a very bright white with a faint gold pearl effect. Then I buried it all in the HOK show klear. It should look awesome in the engine compartment. My theme was to have no finned aluminum, and instead have only chrome.

This was not a high-zoot operation. I just tarped off everything in my smaller garage and used a basic 30 gallon compressor, which was more than sufficient. Th gun I used was the Harbor Freight Black Widow, 1.3 tip, that I put the 3M PPS 2.0 cup system on. Since the paint had been sitting for quite a while, I bucked up and bought a pneumatic paint shaker (also from HF), which also worked swimmingly. I hit up the hardware store and bought an assortment of cork plugs, which I used to plug all of my bolt holes. Other than that it was just some tedious masking, and cleaning with the HOK wax and grease remover before spraying. Just follow the TDS and it's not too bad.

 

I chose something nice, something pure, something cheap because getting dark Brunswick green mixed up to paint on an engine didn't fit my idea of what I wanted to do.

So, in the car's theme of All Blue, I chose a couple shades of blue that I liked.

Then finished it off with some black in places and added carefully patina'd manifolds.

 

Chevy orange; not too creative but it was for a restoration project.

 

To contrast all these professional looking paint jobs, I submit my "it's still in the car, but looks awful" rattle can clean up.
Engine had been painted red over factory silver some years back.
Prepped by pulling off most of the small accessories. Cleaning with purple power, wire brush and a red scotch Brite. Carefully masked.
Sprayed with factory aluminum silver.

When I build a hopped up motor, my son has requested it be painted Gold, which I think is in good taste.

After seeing some of the beautiful engine bays posted here, I have half a mind to paint the inner fenders and firewall white at the same time.

 

I've used Detroit Diesel Alpine Green on several projects. It has a subdued, industrial appearance and looks great with black or chrome accents. In this case, it fits my truck's color scheme as well...

 

Hello,

When we started our 1940 Willys Gas Coupe project, we had ideas based on what we saw at Lion’s Dragstrip and our friend’s 34 Ford, 5 window hot rod. It was what most would call a street/strip hot rod build. It was in the A/Gas class at Lion’s Dragstrip and was driven to high school daily, as well as his afterschool job. He had a row of trophies that were impressive. The Olds powered coupe had many variations, but having another friend with some great mechanical knowledge/contacts and access to “speed parts” was helpful.

So, off we went or what I thought was a well laid out plan. I thought our discussion of a dual quad SBC motor, 4 speed trans and a Positraction rear was going to give us what we needed in a light weight body. But, as I found out, my brother had plans on paper and in his head as to what it was going to be in steps.

When it was time to go look at some different motors, in various stages of builds, the color was standard orange/red, like our 58 Impala stock motor color. But, the Impala was red/orange interior in contrast to the orange/red motor. The whole car had a color matching appearance that looked great, for a black car.

Jnaki

So, as we saw several partially built motors, one SBC was black, one was orange/red and an Oldsmobile motor was a bluish/green. We contemplated the cost of each and how they would fit into our build. I liked the orange/red.

What we ended up with was a black one that was a SBC long block. My brother’s idea was that he did not know what color the final finish was going to be as it was not that important to him. He wanted to build the car, make the modifications, run it to some proud results and then think about the final fit and finish.

So, whether the final finish was Silver or Yellow, the Black motor would fit right in place. The 671 on the SBC motor was impressive enough, so it could have been Pink for all that mattered. I wanted a Silver finish, my brother was thinking along the lines of Yellow, with a Yellow Chevy Station Wagon to be the tow car for our road trips.
similar 671 Isky Gilmer SBC motor/Stromberg carb set up…

Our SBC motor was painted a Black from the time it went into the speed shop to grow from a 283 to a 292 with all blower spec speed parts. So, as it came close to the national record, my brother was right in getting it to run well first, then go for the final finish later.

 

Current build is OT,
- dark blue body and engine bay
- all suspension semi gloss black
- wheels. This will effect engine color. polished lip with natural finish centers or possibly a silver with light gold tint similar to Dow 7 magnesium color
- Engine has alum heads, stainless headers

Engine color - likely same color as wheel centers. Leave all accessories as cast alum. No polishing.

Single stage urethane with a light metallic.

 

I have never been too creative painting engines. To date, most of the engines I have built were some factory engine color. I remember when I was in high school and a friends dad punted the engine in his coral and grey 55 Nomad the coral color. Always thought that was kinda strange having a “pink” motor. Anyway, if I ever get around to building a car with an open engine compartment, I will likely venture out some beyond Chevy orange, Ford red, or Pontiac blue.

 

This thread made me remember a very specific engine. A guy built it while I was in high school. 327 steel crank double humps with 2.02 valves mid 480's lift cam. Strong proven combo, but what made it work - shortbed s1O lot of weight removed, comp engr traction bars, 4.30 gears, Muncie 4 spd. It was a quick street racer with a great driver. The little truck and especially the engine achieved mythical status for a time.
The entire engine was painted BRIGHT YELLOW.

The truck lasted about a year and a half, the engine traded hands several times and anything associated with it fell into the local lore.

I bought a pile of speed parts a few years later, some beat to shit double hump were included with a pulled out stud and a bent valve. As I poked around on them they had a coat of orange over top of that gooey yellow paint.

At the time I was running bowtie heads and had brodix 12's that needed a chamber welded up, and SBC 867 pontiac outlawed nascar heads that needed a 420 or 434 short block, sitting on the shelf. The yellow heads didnt get a second look but are still hanging around somewhere in the shop.