Exterior 1st Gen Most liked posts in thread: Painting Components Under the Bonnet

Take the Chili Red paint code to a reputable local automotive paint supplier and have them mix you up a couple of spray cans. Mine favors DuPont products and I've never been dissatisfied.

It's the only way to go, IMHO...

 

Your local paint shop can easily mix up the paint you need. Prep wise clean, scuff, prime, sand, paint, clear, there's nothing to it. :smilewinkgrin:

 

Surface prep is VERY important. Don't just get the part and start spraying all over it.

Preparing metal surfaces to paint

There is some general information, my general suggestions are cleaning the surface properly, priming the surface, and then applying several coats of the color you choose.

Priming is key so the paint will actually stick properly.

For any plastic pieces, sand them to roughen the surface, a fine grit 600 or so will work fine. Sanding, again, lets the paint stick properly, but it doesn't need valleys of sanding scratches in it to adhere properly.

And take your time, apply a coat, let it completely set 1-2 hours or so (depending on temp/humidity), then keep adding coats in the same manner. This will maximize even layers, and minimize dripping and other imperfections.

 

When I did the under hood stuff I went with powder coating. It's been 6 years now and it holds up very well.

 

:cornut: Check with eMINIparts on the sponsor list. As to the 'how to part', some one 'in the know' should be along shortly as many have done this mod.

Jason

 

On plastic I highly recommend using a adhesion promoter such as Bulldog before priming so there will not be any issues with paint lifting, when you sand plastic you release oils that do not work well with paint.

 

I painted my wheels with body color spray cans from Way.

Would there be heat issues to use body paint on engine parts?

 

Hmmm, yes/no. The engine block obviously gets much hotter than say any of the intake tubes, etc. My main concern would be cracking /chipping of the paint. I'm not sure what temp the paint you have is rated to.

 

Lots of good suggestions here or you could just ask Blimey himself. His blog is full of good ideas.

 

There's about four different types and colors of red paint in that picture. :lol:

As has been said, if you want to match Chili Red, you can get rattle cans of it mixed at a local paint supplier, or some of our sponsors sell it like that I think.

Also, as has been said, prep is the secret. Some of my parts were prepped better than others. And it shows after a while. I don't do car shows anymore for a reason. :wink:

Powder coat does tend to hold up better on a lot of those under-bonnet metal parts, like engine mounts, braces, intercooler horns, etc. And it's relatively "easy" because someone else does it. The challenge is getting exactly the color you want in the powder coat, if you're also going to be painting other things that will be close by. In my experience, exact match isn't absolutely necessary... I've gotten away with several different shades as long as the hue was pretty close (a little lighter or darker, not too orange, etc.). Sometimes takes some trial and error with this stuff to get the look you're going for.

 

Most powder coat places have examples of color chips. Get a sample that you like for the metal parts that will see the hotter temperatures.... Then take the powder coat color chip to the paint store that will set you up with the rattle cans.... This way everything will end up matching the best...