lookin sexy
and I've never seen a green engine bay, what if the engine was dark green and white? hows that for unique?

but that would probly be too many colors for your engine to handle
mebbe I'll do mine that way since its coming out on friday anyways

 

The raised fins.... hmm.. interesting idea. The only problem with that is that they are rounded... might be hard to determine where to sand it... and how straight I could get the lines. Maybe I'll try it on my other parts car stuff.

--Micah

 

Alright... moment of truth.. Throttle body... Silver or black?

 

Black with all the exterior bits (springs, cams, etc.) rezinced.

 

How/where do I get stuff re-zinc'd?

 

I think I'll just clean up the linkages/springs/etc with a plastic brush and some cleaner.... They'll look pretty good on a freshly painted TB I'm thinkin...

 

just take a block and sand all at once so it stays flat on the fins just an opinion not a for sure it will work thing

 

I say TB Silver. Make it look as close to natural aluminum as you can, or the same color as the engine. Too much black can be a bad thing and actually make your engine bay look too dark and dirty. Gotta have some silver on top of the engine to offset the massive black blob of a manifold Just take the springs off and clean them well with something. If they have rust on them use naval jelly to knock the rust off, then wire brush them with a wire wheel or something. Should look great! Keep us updated with pictures. Unfortunatly this (the forums) is all I have to keep me entertained for the next few weeks

 

Actually. I went with black... I might end up stripping it all off again and going silver though... Having seen it in black, it kinda looks gay... It might end up looking better once all of the accessories are back on.... Also. All of the vacuum lines will be silver as well. I think it'll look classy enough... We'll see. I'll throw some pics up later.

 

Haha, thought that might happen. Not like its too hard to redo if you dont like it, like you said.

 

what colour is you engine bay?

i would do the thorttle body the same as the block but maybe try to do all the stuff that can be removed from the throttle black. that may be cool, and by the sounds of it you are not opposed to redo things so if you dont like it redo it.

 

Keep it silver like that. I'll look pretty and shiny in a black car :-P

 

you want to see a sweet *** engine bay.....it might even make you skeet yourself, click on the members tab, look up VIPERS, omg, skeet skeet.
ive seen his car like a million times on this forum, STILL makes me engine randy when i see it!

peace

 

It looks like a model car engine. It's about the same size too. I endorse it. Someone should satin black their engine one day. That'd look pretty neato, with matching satin pieces. Or rather it'd look good for about 3 days.

 

i happen to like the silver ver much but i do agree that u should paint the lettering ive never been a fan of the 2 tone it looks a little odd. plain silver will help the enging keep a clean look

 

Yes, they will...for about 2 weeks, then they'll rust like crazy.
All of those parts were originally zinc/cad plated and once the original finish is removed, the steel is helpless.
You can have the parts replated at a commercial plating house (it's not expensive but you have to carefully inventory every single piece you give them, which can be a pain) or buy a home plating kit (which I've never tried).

You have painted yourself (literally!) into an aesthetic corner.
If all the big stuff (manifolds/TB, etc.) are fresh and shiny, the ancillary hardware will stick out like a sore thumb unless it's brought to a similar level of finish.
New screws, nuts and washers are easy enough, it's the oddball bits (springs/cams) that will be tough.

 

looks GREAT

 

I used a nylon brush on all of those zinc/brass looking pieces.. Tried not to take any of that color off.. I figured it was a rust-proofing measure. I'm going to leave it like that for now.. No finishing of those pieces. some brackets and such I'm painting silver... but, none of the REAL small stuff. I'm going to make my own electroplating tank.. I've been meaning to do it for a while, I even have a transformer that might fit the bill. The tank I have is about 1-gal size, maybe 2... which is big enough for most stuff. The hard part will be finding ingotts/beads/rods of the right material. Zinc bars might be a tuffy... Copper is easy (copper wire is pretty high quality copper if you use the right stuff), Silver is easy (jeweler shop), even gold is a piece of cake to get your hands on... Zinc is a weird one.. Is that something a local welding shop might have for some reason? Anyways..

I just finished spraying the LIM. I should have it pieced together and photos of the whole setup mocked up tomorrow sometime.


Question: I've seen people paint their alternators before. I tried to take an old one apart today... didn't want to come apart.. Any tricks to that? Anything I should know?

 

Question,

I see all these engines painted, I just have to ask how long does it last?

 

I guess we'll find out! I'm sure it'll only last a couple months... but, for that couple months, it'll look ****. Hehe. And as long as it makes me feel better, **** it.. At this point, I'm more concerned with getting everything done right than making it look nice... But its coming out pretty nice.

Here's a mock-up of most of the parts. Sorry about the brightness/quality... Batteries were low.. wouldn't let me use the flash... LAME:

 

Although I can't say that I was a fan of the all silver block, adding the black ancilaries really does make the whole unit look nice.

The extra bits on the throttle body are cad plated -not zinc (brain fart, sorry)- and you can google for cad plating kits and see what chemicals/anodes are needed.

 

Awesome man! I did my LIM, UIM, and waterpump black also! Sorry, no pics though... :/

 

Well.... I've done all the googling I can stand for one night.. but, chemicals aren't NEEDED.. they just aid the plating process... mainly by raising the conductivity of the water.. Some DIY kits say to add sea salt mix (from a pet store). Cadmium/Nickel/Zinc will all be a bitch to find..... I've been looking though. I have a variable transformer from my old highschool (10 years ago... man I'm old)... somehow I held onto it... oh well. It has several voltage settings to try.. I've electroplated with it before on a SUPER small scale and lower voltage. Its pretty high amperage. No idea how much. But, I'll be sure to snag it the next I'm in the attic.



Okay, more shameless pics. A couple more things complete. Vacuum spider painted black (to contrast with block), hoses will be silver/platinum, vacuum hardlines on LIM are silver, as are the ones on the plenum. Painted the port actuators silver, installed the port actuator rods after cleaning everything REAL good. Painted some pulleys black... I think thats it....





Well, thats it for now. I should be wrapping all of these parts in old sheets/rags for a while.... I need to re-paint my engine bay before all of this goes in. I only have a few more pieces to paint/clean. I'm excited to see how it all wraps up.

 

So.. any ideas on pulling apart and painting my alternator? Its just not coming apart as easy as I'd hoped.. don't want to break it.

 

heres mine ...sorry for my countless showing of pics if you seen my car before just trying to throw some ideas out