spray painting engine and bay

[PHATR32]

Hey,

Finally got my engine out last sunday, now all thats left is to strip the rest of the engine bay down.

Im planning on giving the bay and engine a real good clean and respray.

The back end of the box fell on my hand, but dont worry! the gear box is fine.

anyone knwo where i can get some real good undercoat and paint that i can use with a aircompressor and spraygun? i dont wanna use crappy paint cans.

steve

[chowetime]

checkout supply shops that supply panel and paint places they usually have all the gear there for the hiring

[PHATR32]

na i got the all equipment, i need some good paint.

also, whats the deal with 2pak paint? does it need anything speical to be sprayed on?

steve

[Steve]

2 pak is the shit, you just spray it on, sit back and enjoy. Tough as nails, doesnt need buffing or clear coat for a nice shiny finish.

Looks just like any other paint, just mix in the hardener and away you go.

[loz]

go to protec there on welshpool rd cant remember the number but right of leach hwy

family friend is sales rep there and he is fixing up my GTR with paint

[chowetime]

just be careful with this weather though as you will need to make sure that were you are paint is nice and warm and the surface is warm at about 21 degrees otherwise when you paint the paint will be dull and will dry that way and no amount of buffing will fix it - also if you are painting with a red paint (including burgandy) don't put a clear coat over it as it will be easier to buff up faded red paint and bring it back to life rather than trying to buff the faded colour if it has a clear coat as all you will be doing is buffing clear(hope that made sense)

Your tempretures, surface, room and paint temp is very important

[PHATR32]

thanks for the info, the engine bay is black, and i wanna keep it black, cause i want to paint the enngine blue, so i think itll stand out more.

i kinda figured that this wasnt too good weather for painting, but ill be doing it in my garage and ive got 4 heat lamps that i was thinking about using.

so 2pak paint it is then!

steve

[chowetime]

yeah 2 pak is great paint to use and the heat lamps will work a treat if you come up after the first couple of coats with small burst air bubbles ( thats the best way of explaining it ) give it a very gentle rub back with 1200 and 1600 grit paper this will just smooth off any minor rough bits without doing damage... make sure the surfaces that you are painting are clean and after you have cleaned it clean it again sometimes when cleaning engine parts it pays to use sandpaper or a kitchen scrub pad as this will help get anything out of the metal parts use prepsol for your final rinsing of grim and dust out of there

preparation is everything and is the hardest bit.... the painting bit is easy

[PHATR32]

well ive almost finshed stripping down the engine bay, ive taken out almost everything, but i dont think ill be able to take the brake booster out (too much trouble) so ill try to paint around it.

ive got a 20liter barrel of degraser, and degreaser sprayer thing for the air compressor so ill definetly give her a good clean, plus i sand down any rough bit, and finish it off with some prepsol.

ill also try to do the painting on the warm day, my shed gets quite warm on a sunny day so hopefully itll turn out nice.

ill be using the 2pac paint (black), but would it look good if i used 2pac clear coat over the top of it??

thanx for the info fellas.

steve

[harryagain]

hmmm....

Word of advice, be careful with all that degreaser! Make sure you clean everything down with presol to point of reaching OCD, you'll be very disappointed to see the effect of degreaser on your new paint,

good luck!

[PHATR32]

oh yeah, ill make sure it clean. what ive done before is clean everything with metho, as it cleans everything, then evaporapates with out leaving resedue.

then ill use the prepsol over everything.

steve

[AlphA]

Very cool, post up some pictures when you get a chance mate.

[chowetime]

ill be using the 2pac paint (black), but would it look good if i used 2pac clear coat over the top of it??

thanx for the info fellas.

steve

I personally would deffinately be using a couple of clear coats as that will give the black paint some depth in colour and will be so much easir to keep looking nice as the black can look quite flat dull and boring and could look like you have only done half the job, if you are doing engine parts in chrome or adding some extra bling then the glossy black will just make it look so special... but hey thats me I love shiney things

Just remember to do before and after shots

[PHATR32]

oh yeah, i always take heaps of pics when ever i do anything on any car.

im still deciding on what to do with the engine, ill be painting the covers blue, but im not sure about the pipiing. should i paint it blue or should i get em polished?

steve

[petemillis]

2pac black - I definitely would NOT put clear over the top. 2pac dries to a proper hard gloss finish anyway. If you then go and put clear over the top it makes it far harder for you to touch bits up later on as and when you might need to.

[PHATR32]

good point, as im bound to scratch the bay while putting the engine in (no matter how many blankets i use!)

ill see what it looks like when is drys, then ill see if i need to clear coat it or not.

one more question, does 2pac need any special type of undercoat?

thanks again

steve

[chowetime]

well this is what I would do it may seem like over kill but that is me after you have degreased it and cleaned everything use a primer putty and spray the bay with this it will fill in any small chips and scratches then give it a light sand this you will probably will have to do by hand when you are happy with the surface after having given it another clean with the presol then you you will be ready to use the black 2 pak if not glossing then get some 1600grit paper and give it a very gentle rub over to remove any dust particles that may of contaminated the surface go careful here it won't damage the surface if you are using a swirl motion then get a good cut polish to give the car a nice finish but it is recommended not to do this for a couple of days even weeks to do this so that the paint is totally dry and has set

[Steve]

If you are tossing up between polishing the metal bits and painting blue on the engine, you can sort of do both. There is a product that is almost like a candy finish, its a coloured chrome type finish. Blue chrome engine - bling baby yeah:p

Oh, and for fitting engine, if its being done at a workshop, easiest way I have seen it done on GTR is to drop the whole front cradle, with engine in place on the cradle, just lower the car into place. Minimal chance of chips/scratches on the nice new paintwork and it really is alot simpler than going in from the top.

G/L cant wait to see the pics

[petemillis]

As Chrsitine said, it's a good idea to use a primer putty (of high build primer as we call them here!) to fill any imperfections. Reason being is that the gloss finish will accentuate an imperfections that are there! Do several coats of highbuild so that you can fill chips and smooth off high spots.

The 2pac should go off really hard pretty quick (like well within 24 hours if warm enough). You also SHOULDN'T need to use any wet and dry paper or rubbing compound to get a perfect finish, provided your pre-spraying prep is done properly. When you've sprayed the 2pac, if you do find any imperfections then deal with them the same way you would with imperfections in a clearcoat. It should be ok to do this after 24 hours. what you mustn't do is apply any wax to it within like a month as the chemical in the wax can penetrate the finish.

[PHATR32]

excelent info!

the primer putty is definetly something i will be doing as there are quite a few scratches and chips etc etc

thank heaps again!!

steve