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Topic: painting engine block (Read 2393 times) previous topic - next topic

painting engine block

Well I've got a month off from school and being that I'm obsessed with my Bird I'm doing some "restoration" work. I've already repainted the rear drums black with brake paint and also painted the rear inner fender chassies black. Well the front disk calipers are up next and are getting painted with silver brake paint. Any ways I'm going to be doing some major engine bay work. I've got 9Z silver metalic for the inner fenders to repaint them but I also want to paint the engine block. Here's where my problem starts. What is the shade of blue that matches duplicolor Ford Blue? I want to get brush on paint from here: http://www.por15store.com/POR-15-Engine-Enamel.html but I can't figure if the shade of blue is the right one. Is it Ford blue or med Ford blue? I know it's not Ford corporate blue because that was used from 68 on and it's a much darker shade. If anyone know what color blue is on my upper intake let me know because it's driving me nuts:crazy: Yeah I painted the upper but duplicolor Ford blue dosen't seem to match either of those 2 colors. Here's soem pics of my engine bay for refference. As you can see it's pretty clean but to me it can be improved upon:D .
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #1
Man, I can't even SEE the block in any of those pics :dunno:

Garrett H.
'94 F250 XLT- 4x4, 5 speed, 7.3 IDI Turbo Diesel, 4" intake, 4" exhaust, 5" turnout stacks, manual hubs, etc.
'87 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe
Engine, wheels, tires, etc!
Exhaust sound clip
Another clip

 

painting engine block

Reply #2
Care to give me tips on the major things you did. That bay looks EXCELLENT. What did you use on the plastics? To clean the metals (such as the a/c compressor) Painted areas of the engine bay? My engine bay's clean but yours makes mine look like a historic artifact
1988 Thunderbird Sport

painting engine block

Reply #3
Lets see to clean the plastics I used WD-40 to degrease the black plastic and then wiped it down. After that I used Meguires extream tire shine to shine it (same stuff I use on my tires. It comes as a purple gell that I wiped on the plastic with a paper towel).

The A/C compressor, power stearing pump bracket, alternator, and air pump were all painted with, get this, aluminium colored enamel paint from ACE. It's held up for a year no problems and still looks good. I also used black enamle paint from ACE to paint the A/C lines, a couple of brackets, the A/C accumulator, top of the radiator, radiator hold down brackets, and strut tower nuts.

The painted areas of the engine bay were sprayed with WD-40 to degrease them and then wiped down. The factory silver paint from the factory has yellowed slightly and I'm going to repaint the bay as soon as it gets warmer out (it's about 23* here now tooo  cold to paint).

On the engine I painted the upper intake with duplicolor high heat Ford Blue. The lower was painted with Eastwood silver manifold coating. The headers are stock Stang shorties painted with duplicolor 1500 degree paint but it's starting to chip a little so I'm going to redo it with some Eastwood silver manifold coating.

Yeah I know that you can't really see the block but I'm buttstuff about cleaning this car. Actually you can see the block if ya bend over the engine bay. Then you can see the heads and they are that ugly rusty brown color. That's why I want to paint the motor.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #4
WD-40 and paint? Thought it was more than that. Still looks good though
1988 Thunderbird Sport

painting engine block

Reply #5
Painting all the aluminum stuff on your engine is actually a good idea. Bare aluminum doesn't stay "pretty" for very long before it starts to oxidize and look py. I painted all my brackets and my upper & lower intake flat black, and I think it looks good. Kinda subtle.

Garrett H.
'94 F250 XLT- 4x4, 5 speed, 7.3 IDI Turbo Diesel, 4" intake, 4" exhaust, 5" turnout stacks, manual hubs, etc.
'87 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe
Engine, wheels, tires, etc!
Exhaust sound clip
Another clip

painting engine block

Reply #6
Just for comparison purposes I'm puting up some pics of the engine bay as it looked when I bought the car. Even though I'm not done there's a BIG difference :D
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #7
wow man great job on that bay. i love getting under the hood and cleaning it up. and watching the wow on peoples faces when you pop the hood
trick flow street heat intake , 24lbs injetors, ported GT-40's (Chip) long tube headers. and a Performance Automatic C4, with a hurst shifter!

painting engine block

Reply #8
Well an upddate. I painted the heads Duplicolor Ford blue. You could really only see the heads from the top so that's all I painted. I just sprayed the paint into a glass bowl and used a brush to paint the heads with it.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #9
Oh and the positive batery cable's hanging because I removed the batery so I can paint the engine bay:flip:
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #10
That really looks great, I am impressed. I would have figured that being in Chicago all the aluminum would be pitted from salt and snow.

painting engine block

Reply #11
I'm in Chicago but the car is from California :D . It dosen't get driven in the winter so the salt dosen't eat it. The aluminium didn't look that great when I bought it so I ended up painting it with aluminium colored paint.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #12
that upper intake is freakin awesome i like it.

painting engine block

Reply #13
Did you see the new intake plate I made :D
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

painting engine block

Reply #14
Quote from: thunderjet302
Did you see the new intake plate I made :D

Nice!:D