Engine detailing help
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 310
Likes: 6
From: New Bern NC
Engine detailing help
I'm an electronics technician and I know little about engines. I want to detail my engine soon after the paint/body shop finishes my car within the next 3 weeks, to make my engine area a bit more show & shine worthy. It is not very far from that now as you can see in my photos below, but with just a little more work it could look somewhat nicer and compliment the new paint job. Manifolds need recoating, the brake fluid unit could use cleaning up or painting. I want to keep it close to what it appeared original but paint (black) side walls, firewall, and clean-up/paint the different engine components, maybe even lightly spray over the heat scorn red-orange colored heads, they look great except for where the heat have burned the paint. Any help? I'll probably just take it to a local Corvette Shop and let them professionlly detail it however I'm looking for advise and suggestions. Thanks to all who respond to my post.
Race Director
Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 10,643
Likes: 8
From: Foxfield CO 1970 Convertible
Wow, that looks great! I was going to mention the master cylinder, but it looks like you took car of that already. I'd use high temp paint even on the intake manifold. Can't see much else to improve! Good luck... 
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 310
Likes: 6
From: New Bern NC
In those photos the master cylinder looks good, but it still needs to be touched up, I guess the lighting of my digital camera made it look like it was touched up. What color should the Master cylinder be? Black or Bead it off to clean metal? I'm not an engine person so forgive my dumb questions. Is the master cylinder something that can be easily removed, beaded off to orginial metal or painted and then re-installed? I'm just trying to keep her looking clean and stock. I've already gotten, what I believe is, a great car to start with, so I'm learning what I can to restore her part by part while maintaining originality. After the professional paint job is finished in 3 weeks the engine area will show every worn or rusted part even more so, when I lift the hood.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 310
Likes: 6
From: New Bern NC
Ya know what? That master cylinder DOES look clean in those photos doesn't it. Hmmmm..... I was going by the first photo (taken by previous owner) You see, my Corvette is presently in Paint/body shop 1 hour away from me. So I can't walk out to the garage and lift the hood. I think maybe the last gentleman who own the car may have cleaned up or replaced the master cylinder after the 1st photo was taken, all other photos below the 1st are recently taken by me. Oh Well, I'll know in 3 weeks when I get the car out of paint shop. I'll need to recoat my Exhaust Manifolds anyway. I know those need it! The master Cylinder may be ok. Silly me! I was going by the first photo. It's bad when all you have is your photos and your car is sitting in another town in some body shop's Garage.
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,254
Likes: 1
From: Edinburgh
Originally Posted by etech152
It's bad when all you have is your photos and your car is sitting in another town in some body shop's Garage.
Mine has been gone for a year now and looks as though it will be another few months in the rebuild! Gawd I miss my vette!! 
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 5,943
Likes: 3
From: Wildwood IL
If your interested....Eastwood Co makes a high temp "brush on" engine paint called "one shot". It's a two part (paint & hardener) that brushes on so you don't have to mask, diss-assemble, etc everything to use. They have Chevy Orange.
Eddie
Eddie
Pro
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 541
Likes: 5
From: Epping NH
engine bay detailing
I'd say things look great under the hood! My 69 L-46 looks very similar. As for the burn marks on the intake manifold, there is nothing you can do about that. My freshly painted manifold blackened up as soon as I ran the engine for a while. My master cylinder also showed signs of aging and the brake lines were looking pretty rusty when I started my resto. While my engine was out, and before I painted everything under the hood, I scrubbed the master cylinder with a brush saturated in WD-40. As for the brake lines, I took 000 steel wool and scrubbed them until they shined. I then saturated a cloth in WD-40 and wiped the lines up and down to both clean debris and coat them. It has been two years since I did this and the lines still look like new (well almost) and the master cylinder looks fine. Just recently, I wiped both items down again with WD-40.
While I was at it, I decided to clean my hood lock pins. I removed both and found them full of grease, grit, etc. I too them to a wire wheel and cleaned them down to the bare metal and gave them the same WD-40 treatment. They looked like new, and make a difference when the hood is up.
While I was at it, I decided to clean my hood lock pins. I removed both and found them full of grease, grit, etc. I too them to a wire wheel and cleaned them down to the bare metal and gave them the same WD-40 treatment. They looked like new, and make a difference when the hood is up.
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