i painted my car a while back and everything looked good except for the engine bay...i wasnt about to attempt to paint it cuz i wasnt sure how to go about it...is it possible to paint with the motor still in? i know it would be impossible to get every crack and cranny, but the main parts...i'm going to repaint my car and i would like to get everything on one shot if possible...i'm going to strip the car of everything again and shoot jambs and all...i would like to take the hood off and mask the motor and as much as possible...although i was thinking of switching to my mini gun to try to get as many areas of the bay as i can...any input from the pros?

 

umm... good luck

 

Look I'm not a pro, but I can tell you that there is no such thing as painting an engine bay with the engine inside the bay.

Sooner or later there will be a ton of people showing up flaming for suggesting an idea.

I wish it were possible. Because I would do it myself. But you can't There's just no way it'll look good.

The ONLY way that there's a TEENY TINY hyper micro chance that it might turn out semi-OK, is if you painted the engine bay with more black. That's the only suggestion I can think of.

Not to mention that it's nearly impossible to prep the engine bay while it's in there anyways.

Here's a good quote I love "We never have enough time to do it right the first time, but we always have enough time to do it the second time."

That's means, just do it right the first time!

 

my friend took all harnesses and unbolted what needed to be out of the engine bay bungee tied it all on the motor covered the motor and sprayed it. this was done in a scion and it was a color change from blue to red and you would never know the difference

 

that's kind of the idea i was having for it...obviously you couldnt get the firewall and tiny areas perfectly, but the main thing would be the radiator support, shock towers and the larger areas...this is how mine currently looks after i spray painted the bay black

 

I would leave it be...black wouldn't look bad with most colors anyway. My car is going from silver to Jade Green this summer and the engine bay is staying the same. As long as the color is a generic like silver, black or even some greys, then It's not the end of the world. You might want to do the front of the rad support where you can see it through the bumper, just be careful to not hit other things visible from bay.

If you really want it done...just pull the motor. It's faster then trying to take out everything around it with it there, and it would look much better.

 

it's possible.
you might miss a couple spots that might lead to peeling but it shouldn't be visible.
i'd like to see some pics of this done too tho.
pull out parts, wires, clips, screws, etc... as much as possible. it's gonna save you time.
good luck

 

I really don't think it will save you time if you're going for a good job. By the time you remove all of those fasteners/wires/brake lines/vac lines/etc..., how much longer does it really take to get the motor out? And plus if you get the motor out early, all those other things come out 10x easier.

 

I did it on my car and it looked great. the only thing we didnt do was the firewall, which i did black rattle can. Removed the radiator, and anything else in the way and put it on the head, or off, and thats it. Bag the engine and go to town. I had most things on the car removed perma anyway, like the ac/cruise/power steering ect. I also did a mild wire tucks, litterally, tuck it looked great imo though.

 

I painted my engine bay with rattle cans and didn't really remove much. I unbolted the rad and a/c condenser mounts, removed the front struts, fuse box, battery and battery tray, headlights, bumper hood latch, etc...... Lots of tape, plastic and lots of patience. I sanded the OEM paint down to metal or primer and used Duplicolor filler primer, then sanded with 500 grit, 800 grit, 1000 grit wet, then two base coats of Milano Red Duplicolor touch up paint, then wetsanded that with 1000 grit and did several coats of Duplicolor auto clear. The only thing I didn't paint was the middle of the firewall where the brake lines are.

Before:



After:

 

do you have any pics? how difficult was the tuck i kinda want to do a minor tuck myself.

 

i would leave it black. doesnt look bad at all

 

damn while youre at it go ahead and put your sneakers on before your jeans. haha

 

I drive my car to work everyday, so pulling the motor out to paint the bay was not an option.

 

well you seemed to do a damn good job at it tho. props to you.