engine compartment color

[Scott Santora]

 My car's paint code is 10, Ebony Black. Does anybody know if Eastwood's "Original Chassis Black Satin" is the correct engine compartment color? I only need to do some touch-up and at least for right now, don't want to paint the entire engine bay. Basically, the engine is still in the car and will be there for at least another year. 

 

[Dennis P. DiBari]

Hi Scott,

     I am not sure about the engine compartment - the right type of black to use.  I got all of my touch up paint for my car from Paint Scratch.com.  They have great body touch up paint.  Maybe will have engine compartment paint as well?  Jason Edge will know for sure.

Dennis DiBari

[Scott Santora]

Yeah, I bought some touch-up paint from paint scratch too. They don't have any listing, or at least I did not see any listing, for satin black. The only place I found the color type "satin black" was at Eastwood. Plenty of flat and semi-gloss, no satin. I've seen now in several different sources that the engine bay is definitely satin. 

[Jason Edge]

In general in terms of engine back items painted black:

- Cowl/firewall, under hood and inner fenders will be satin black,

- Corner braces/brackets and radiator support, will be more of a semi gloss, a bit more sheen.

- Oil Filler cap, air filter housing, 64 smooth style vacuum canister, and some other smaller items will be more of a semi gloss to gloss.

I like the Rustoleum Engine Paints, and use their Satin, Semi Gloss and Gloss as noted above.  It just goes on smooth, does not run, coats well, and easy to work with. I have tried a lot of other rattle can  paints and always go back to Rustoleum. Using the 500 degree engine grade also gives you the higher them protection, even  if not on the engine and think it is more durable.

If you really want to make something pop, go  back with the Engine Clear Coat. It will help protect more and really give that gloss black air filter more pop. As a CLC judge we are not going to ding points if you are in the ballpark, but if you show up with a gloss black inner fender, firewall or under hood, it might cost you a point ding. If just want to get it close to original, brand and slight differences in sheen is not going to matter.

Also to add, we do have a couple of related paint topics regarding the engine on our Help Page:

- Engine Paint Colors 
- Engine Painting Tips 

NOTE: it is my understanding that the Bill Hirsch rattle-can Cadillac Blue paint is no longer available. Which is a shame.

Jason. 

[Scott Santora]

Jason,

 Appreciate the info on what parts are painted which color, good info. My bigger question is this, right now, I only want to do some touch-up on the firewall, core support and inner fenders. Does anybody know which paint matches the factory color the best? Will  the Rustoleum satin or Eastwood satin paints match the existing factory color at all? What I don't want to do is create an eyesore by using obviously mix matched colors under the hood.

[Jason Edge]

60+ Year old paint, exposed to various conditions, over a very wide range of use and miles is going to vary a LOT! I have pulled in parts cars with 40K miles always garaged kept, to cars with say 150K+ miles that look like they never saw a garage and the paint was like night and day on the exact same area. Paints fade over time, n to mention the corrosive affect of weather, humidity, etc. 

Your best best if just trying to match is going to be by trial and error, unless  you have a local paint/body shop with someone with a lot of experience that can just eye it and get pretty close to what you currently have.  I would try a $10 can of Satin Rustoleum (or Satin in whatever brand you like) and go from there adjusting gloss and brand.

If worried about inconsistent appearance maybe tackle one section of the engine bay at a time. That is clean and paint the entire back firewall, then under hood, then inner fenders. As you go, you can remove the cad plated hardware on the backwall and else where and upgrade with some nice freshly plated hardware from me... that as seen below is going o really make the engine bay pop.  About the worst offense I have seen on the many parts cars is where everything and anything has been sprayed over.

I pretty much did my engine bay section by section and think it turned out pretty good. I did paint the much of the engine bay with engine out, however, you can still access a lot of it from above.

[Scott Santora]

Thanks Jason,

 My car was garaged it's entire life but obviously there is some fade in the paint. The plan is pull the engine next year to do the rear main seal/rear main cap mod, motor mounts, and to get painted  so maybe i'll just wait until then to address the engine bay.