Painting Engine Bay!

stimpy29 said

Hey everyone, it seems like I'm in the same boat as a few of you. I've been slowly working on my 69 Barracuda convertible over the winter. Cleaning up interior pieces, fixing my grills, etc. But now that the weather has improved, my Dad and I have pulled the motor and transmission and this weekend I'm hoping to sandblast the engine bay to get it ready for painting and priming. I'm a rookie at this, never painted anything this significant before and wanted to get some advice on the primer. Should I go with an epoxy primer, a self-etching primer or something else? Any advice would be appreciated.

Here is a quick picture of my engine bay before the master cyliner, transmission and steering column/box were removed. Everything has since been removed and it's ready to be wrapped, taped and stripped.

Click to expand...

stimpy,

What I did was used paint striper and got everything down to bare metal. Then I used a etching solution on the metal first and then used epoxy primer. I applied 4 coats and wet sanded with 400 girt sandpaper. Looks nice and smooth now. Just about done with the hood and maybe can get my friend to head this way to paint it.

I'm almost wondering if I could paint it myself. I need to practice with something else first. LOL!

I've did some research and come to realize that it takes a little know how far as the position of the gun, how fast you move the gun etc... or I would end up with orange peel, fish eyes, sags. I also learned a thing or two about base and clearcoat system. I thought you can spray the base and then walk away until tomorrow let's just say. But you HAVE to apply the clearcoat with in 60-90 minutes of the last coat of base. I didn't know that.

Anyways I hope maybe I answered your questions.