Painted Engine Compartment
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 845
Likes: 0
From: Mesa Arizona
Eng comp paint
I painted my FRC, rad support, dipstick handle, fuse box lid, all the fill caps & the batery den cover I got out of a vette catalog, cause the red didn't match the Torch Red of the car. Local painters wanted over $400 for all that.
Home Depot sell some plastic paint for painting plastic lawn chairs, etc.
They have all sorts of colors, primer & clear in rattle cans. I did all of the above for $50 worth of paint & wet/dry sandpaper.
Sand all parts w/600 paper, prime, sand w/800, prime, do this thru 4 coats of primer & the crackle finish on FRC will be smooooth.
4 coats of the red that I found matched the TR real close, wet sanded w/1200 between each coat & rubbed out w/white compound after each sanding session. After each comp session, wipe with prepsol or denatured alcohol so next coat sticks.
Hard to do on the dipstick handle, so use thin coats on it. Stuff dries quickly.
Then I applied the decals to the letters & lines & used gloss black model car paint w/fine brush to paint letters on fuse box lid & rad support.
On the caps, they all have labels, so b/4 painting them, I scanned them into computer, sized them to correct size, reversed them & printed on clear adhesive labeling material that u can get at Office Max.
Then since it's difficult to sand the caps, I put thin coats of primer and then color coat.
After all were dry, I cut out the clear labels & applied to the fill caps.
Then everything got 2 coats of clear, sanding & rubbing out after 2nd coat. Then 2 more coats of clear & a final wet sand & rub out.
Oh yeah, the washer fluid cap, the letters & emblem are raised, so I painted those blue to match the washer fluid, then cleared it.
This was 1st mod I did under the hood, bout a year ago & I drive this thing all the time during the day in good ol firepit Phoenix. I won a trophy last Sunday at a local show. See below, they have held up very nice.
I have another set of FRC's & I am going to paint them & see if I can flame them w/rattle cans. If it doesn't work, what am I out, $9 for 3 more cans of paint.
Home Depot sell some plastic paint for painting plastic lawn chairs, etc.
They have all sorts of colors, primer & clear in rattle cans. I did all of the above for $50 worth of paint & wet/dry sandpaper.
Sand all parts w/600 paper, prime, sand w/800, prime, do this thru 4 coats of primer & the crackle finish on FRC will be smooooth.
4 coats of the red that I found matched the TR real close, wet sanded w/1200 between each coat & rubbed out w/white compound after each sanding session. After each comp session, wipe with prepsol or denatured alcohol so next coat sticks.
Hard to do on the dipstick handle, so use thin coats on it. Stuff dries quickly.
Then I applied the decals to the letters & lines & used gloss black model car paint w/fine brush to paint letters on fuse box lid & rad support.
On the caps, they all have labels, so b/4 painting them, I scanned them into computer, sized them to correct size, reversed them & printed on clear adhesive labeling material that u can get at Office Max.
Then since it's difficult to sand the caps, I put thin coats of primer and then color coat.
After all were dry, I cut out the clear labels & applied to the fill caps.
Then everything got 2 coats of clear, sanding & rubbing out after 2nd coat. Then 2 more coats of clear & a final wet sand & rub out.
Oh yeah, the washer fluid cap, the letters & emblem are raised, so I painted those blue to match the washer fluid, then cleared it.
This was 1st mod I did under the hood, bout a year ago & I drive this thing all the time during the day in good ol firepit Phoenix. I won a trophy last Sunday at a local show. See below, they have held up very nice.
I have another set of FRC's & I am going to paint them & see if I can flame them w/rattle cans. If it doesn't work, what am I out, $9 for 3 more cans of paint.
Last edited by jaxvet; Feb 15, 2007 at 12:09 AM.
