Engine bay Flat or Satin? Opinions welcome.

[jimharold]

Hello All,

As I fix, replace or modify the engine bay on the old 68' I wonder about the best looking finish. Flat or satin? Maybe even gloss here and there. I bring this up because I just made a dual snorkle air cleaner out of two singles. And now it is time to paint. The truck is turquoise and under the grim the 318 should be red. Only had the truck 2 months, still working at cleaning it . Also I just turned a Monster drink bottle into a washer bag replacement. Easy job. That needs paint too.

So what does the forum think? And any pictures would go a long way in helping me decide.

Thanks for all the help,
Jimharold.

[Jims68]

Originally the engine compartments were shiny or gloss. I "prefer" the original gloss look. Flat paint would surely be too hard to wipe down if you have any oil or 'whatever' on the paint. Semi gloss? Eh... what's the point? you may as well go with GLOSS paint. Of course, this is my opinion.

OH... and the engine compartment (I think) looks best when it is painted the same color as the truck. Otherwise, it will look like you swapped out the front end with used parts and never got around to painting it the 'correct' color.



Jim

[rockingkay]

I did my 68 in flat first but when it dried I thought it looked boring and then I noticed my finger prints were showing up real good. So I shot it again in satin and went thick and heavy with the paint. Its got a semi gloss orange pill look now and it cleans up easy.

[66patrick]

The black areas were actually semi-gloss, NOT gloss black. I like the semi-gloss. A semi-flat, or matte black, is also good. Gloss is out of place and just looks odd to me. Flat is a bad idea, because it is near-impossible to remove stains and fingerprints from, and scratches easier.

Personal preferences rule for your truck, of course.

[jimharold]

Finger prints? I forgot about those. Thanks guys.

Any photos of engine bays? Sure would love to see a clean bay.

[PwrWgnDrvr]

.

[wally426ci]

Probably what yours should look close to?

[jimharold]

Thanks Wally. That's what my engine bay should have looked like when I bought the truck.

[rockingkay]

heres the pic

[oklamopar]

It's all owner preference.


I like gloss paint, spray wax and ,done.

[CSS-Registry]

mine is all "stock" but with everything being black it is hard to tell what is glossy and what is semi gloss.

the fender tops and firewall are all body color gloss black. the slash guards are semi-gloss black. the radiator is painted with eastwood radiator paint and the engine is painted with Mopar "low-performance" turquoise. other bits are rattle can aluminum, cast iron, cad or zinc. the springs on the hood hinge are a paint for vinyl upholstery and have not cracked.

now, see if you can spot the AC compressor... :)

Ben

[MrMopar]

mine is all "stock" but with everything being black it is hard to tell what is glossy and what is semi gloss.

DSC_5633.JPG

Ben

I recently painted a black car and needed to know what was body color and what was not ie low gloss, so I looked at a couple other cars one red and one green to see what was body color. I have seen this same car done wrong because they assumed that it was all the same black.

Alan

[CSS-Registry]

yeah - there are some flat black portions painted behind the grill on these trucks. it is an odd spray pattern as well.

the devil is in the details.

Ben

[MrMopar]

yeah - there are some flat black portions painted behind the grill on these trucks. it is an odd spray pattern as well.

the devil is in the details.

Ben

That blackout is done by hand and only as needed to darken that area seen through the grill, no masking and often poorly done with minimal coverage.
This is only don on medium to light colors.

Alan

[66patrick]

That was also done on darker colors, as well. The '66 D100 Utiline I owned when I was stationed in Tacoma, WA in the early '80s was what I call "UPS" brown, with the factory paint, and it was blacked out behind the grille. Chrysler's thought was that there should be NO visible body color behind the grille...unless the vehicle was black, of course! You can tell a resto on a Mopar done by a GM guy, in that the area behind the grille ends up as body color, and everything that is sheetmetal under the hood is black, including under the actual hood itself. I saw a Daffodil Yellow '67 Coronet R/T years ago, where the guy did all that to it. It looked like a large pile of elephant crap. He insisted that was the way Chrysler did it, where I pointed to my '66 Coronet 500 and showed him what was correct. He was pissed. I just smiled.

[40YearOldFury]

I did mine body color light turquoise 1964. I also did the lower inner fenders that color as well even though they were supposed to be semi gloss black. Since my body was a light color I did black out the area behind the grill with semi gloss guess that's personal preference...My rig is a far cry from factory correct restore anyway!