Painting the engine bay

by JiMi_DRiX Thu Oct 27, 2011 1:50 am

So my first order of business on the 73 is to clean up the engine bay. The motor looks good, but the fender wells, radiator support and fan shroud need cleaned up and painted. Is there a "correct" shade of black to use? Flat? Semi? Satin? SUPER FREAKIN' SHINY? ok, maybe not that last one. If anyone has a HQ picture of a sweet original engine bay, that would be great for reference. I think I did my 76 in semi-gloss, and it looks good, but since the 73 has got to keep the original look as much as possible, I wanted to know which color is closest to factory.

oh! and what about things like the radiator and a/c brackets? the a/c hose brackets? Were they all glossy?

by 77mali Thu Oct 27, 2011 6:33 am

You can still get the correct GM paint if you want to spend the $$$. I'm still in the process of doing this but so far I like the Duplicolor satin black as a finish but I'm not keeping the original colors as it's kind of a hot rod at this point. They also make "factory" color matched paint in cans. Check out SEM paint too they may have exact matches as well.

by JB2wheeler Thu Oct 27, 2011 12:44 pm

Eastwood has a lot of paint made especially for the engine bay. Yes, they are expensive, but have good products. Check out their catalog. JB

by 1973 454 MONTE Thu Oct 27, 2011 2:28 pm

when i did my 73 in 2002,i did not paint the inner fenders.they look like they may of never had paint at all from the factory.

by ant7377 Thu Oct 27, 2011 4:55 pm

I wipe my inner fenders with wd 40 and that makes them look good, just have to do it once in a while. Clean them good with soap and water first.

by 1973montec Sun Oct 30, 2011 12:05 am

the inner fenders were already painted gloss black when i got the monte.i dont like it. should of changed it

by JB2wheeler Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:17 am

I saw a mid 70s Elky painted all black and under the hood it was painted gloss black almost everywhere. The car looked great, but that gloss black under the hood looked terrible. JB

by JiMi_DRiX Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:35 pm

Gloss black is not good looking at all. I used either a semi gloss or low gloss on my 76. I don't think the fenders were painted from the factory, but after thirty some odd years, they lose.their nice look. I may try a low gloss or satin on the radiator support and see how much of a difference it makes in its overall appearance.

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Painting the engine bay

Painting the engine bay

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