What color should I paint my engine?

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MOBodyman

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I'm changing the engine in my '68 Dart GT and am thinking I might as well paint it while it's out. Car has been painted '70 Lime green and the engine looks to be Chevy orange. I know '68 v-8s were originally red so should I paint it red or go with something that would look better in the lime green engine bay? Keep it orange, paint it sassy grass or JD green, black? I plan to paint the mounts, brackets, and accessories black. Feedback please.
TIA,
Dallas
 
I'd vote for black with some polished aluminum highlights and maybe some traces of green on it.
 
black engines are yuck but on green it would pop and most other colors would clash with green. so maby black with as much chrome or shiney as u can lol
 
The orange will really pop on the green.

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67GTX, where did you get the carbonfiber look? Is it powder coating? You did the intake also? Gonna need a further away pics... I am in love!!!
 
jrlegacy23 said:
67GTX, where did you get the carbonfiber look? Is it powder coating? You did the intake also? Gonna need a further away pics... I am in love!!!
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It's a process using a film then clear coated.

engineinstall025.jpg

Sorry about the air cleaner, it was the only one around.

engine014sm.jpg
 
I vote factory red, doesn't matter if it clashes. If you hade to have a custom look then I'd say silver or aluminum color. Black will just make the motor disappear into the frame and suspension.
 
I having my shop paint my 340 Chevy Orange, ha ha. Told them anything but Blue or Black. They say the Chevy Orange is tough and last longer than the Red paint. So that is what its getting.
 
I have a 68 Formula S and struggled a bit with that same thing when I did my 416 stroker. I went with Mopar/Hemi orange and am glad I did. I have an off brand motor I built that I painted black and covered the frost plugs so they were still gold in color. It looks OK but kindof looks like a generic crate motor after some time. The Mopar orange still looks very good after a year.

My 2 cents I would go red for a restoration or orange for a fun car.
 
Wow! Lots of replies here! Thanks for all the feedback. All these nice engines are making me start to feel bad, though. This job started out to be a quick, low budget deal to get the car going again, but it's starting to escalate out of hand. I would like to do something really nice and custom but I don't plan to keep the car too long so I'm not going to devote a huge amount of time and $ to it. I have pretty much decided to go with orange since it isn't a resto. I think it goes better with lime than red does. The engine I pulled out was black and I didn't really care for the way it looked. I would like black if I had some chrome or aluminum accessories to go on it but I don't have anything laying around for a small block.
I'll try to remember to shoot and post a pic when I'm done.
Dallas
 
67DartGT340 said:
I have a 68 340 in my car and went Red, so Red would get my vote. Really go with the colour that grabs your attention the most!
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BTW, red looks really good with the exterior color of your car! If I had some dress-up accessories for my engine I would have likely went with a turquoise that complimented the lime engine compartment.
Dallas
 
I did mine all in cast iron with aluminum covers. Sounds nuts but it looks sweet.
 
MOBodyman said:
BTW, red looks really good with the exterior color of your car! If I had some dress-up accessories for my engine I would have likely went with a turquoise that complimented the lime engine compartment.
Dallas
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Yeah I can agree with that, gotta go with what pleases your eyes! Thanks for the compliment on the car. Good luck with the build!

Mark
 
Wow!!!!! Where did you get those valve covers done? I wonder what my commando covers will look like if I had them done that way!



67gtx said:
It's a process using a film then clear coated.

engineinstall025.jpg

Sorry about the air cleaner, it was the only one around.

engine014sm.jpg
Click to expand...
 
I have to go with Chip Foose on this one. "the engine is the centerpiece of the car". So don't do it black. And Green would just blend into the engine compartment. I would go orange.
 
I'm a sucker for stock (looking), so I'd go with red. As I did with my stroker. Only V-8 available stock was the 273, which was red, so now I have a bright red 408. Three coats of primer, three coats of red and three clear. Dang, it looks good.

But hey, I'm biased.:love7:

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HEMI orange would would would look killer against the green, Body colored engines are pretty much an 80s thing, when I open the hood I want to hear COOL ! not, Wheres the engine??? & take it easy with the polished parts & chrome, too much looks tacky.
 
hypermite said:
HEMI orange would would would look killer against the green, Body colored engines are pretty much an 80s thing, when I open the hood I want to hear COOL ! not, Wheres the engine??? & take it easy with the polished parts & chrome, too much looks tacky.
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