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Painted Engine Covers.

spork_av

Charter Member
SM 2003
Full Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2002
Messages
1,586
Location
Columbus Ohio
Well, I finally got around to painting my engine covers last week. And now, I am getting around to posting pictures of them.

Couldn't decide what catagory to post them in, since they would fit under accessories, paint etc..

anyway, here they are.

engine1.jpg

engine2.jpg

engine3.jpg

engine4.jpg
 
SWEET! I think you could start a business doing this! I would pay you for your awesome artistic talent!

Love it!
 
spork_av said:
Well, I finally got around to painting my engine covers last week. ?And now, I am getting around to posting pictures of them.

Couldn't decide what catagory to post them in, since they would fit under accessories, paint etc..

Rob,

We really need a step by step on how you did them. It is the best I've seen to date. Good job!!!!
 
OMG :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I WANT one >:D

Post steps on how to do, I have no artisitc talent what so ever so intructions must be easy :2:
 
carrerarod said:
SWEET! I think you could start a business doing this! I would pay you for your awesome artistic talent!

Love it!

Thanks, but I would have to invest in some profesional grade equipment to do it properly.

HBear said:
Rob,

We really need a step by step on how you did them. It is the best I've seen to date. Good job!!!!

I did them with paint!! LOL actually, I was going to do more with the battery cover too, but I got lazy and just clear coated it off.... oh well.

Basically, prep like any other painting. do the base coat, let it dry, tape off your design, and paint, let it dry, clear coat it, sand it, and then clear coat again.
 
:eek: :eek:

Spork that looks great, wish you were here in Texas so you could do mine.... looks awesome :eek:

Thanks for sharing...

:B: :B: MsAV
 
Spork,

You be jammin, Brah. That's da bomb.

How you prep da plastic? Chemical, steel wool, sanding paper? What type of paints? Is painting your hobby or job? Do you plan to paint the METRO dealership tag frame to match? ;D

Aloha,
Murman :cool:
 
Spork
Those covers look great. I Love Flames
Now I have another project this weekend. :p :p
 
That looks just incredible spork! Great work - and the clear UPD really adds to the under hood look. When are you going to put the mirror on the hood underside?

:love:
 
Spork - that is very very nice

Your engine looks so clean - mine is so covered in dust and mud, it will never again look that nice :)

You have talent - many of us have no artistic talent at all and are in AW
 
awesome work spork (y) (y) (y), did you have to use engine paint to do both pieces? and what grit sandpaper did you use after first clear coat?
 
Thanks for all the compliments everyone. To me, this paint job was a lot simpler than the one I did on my bug. That was a really ellaborate wet paint looking thing.. this one, was easy in comparison.

Anyway, to answer a few questions.

#1. I have seen as many painting techniques as there are people who do it. All I can say, is to experiment and find a technique that you like to do, and gives you the result you like.

#2 Common prep things to do before painting. Wash the plastic pieces with dish soap first. Sand down with a 300 grit wet paper, until the surfance is smooth. Wash again with dishsoap to get all the sanded material off from the piece. Paint with primer, let dry and sand any irregular surfaces, hit with primer again, and sand until everything is smooth, and covered with primer.

#3 Most important thing to do with spray paint, is to spray lightly and at a distance of no more and no less than a foot away. avoid puddling at all possible. Also, the propelant in spray paint, is also a thinner and will eat through primer if you puddle the paint. It will all bubble up and look nasty.

#4. I personally don't like to sand the painted surface after I paint. I like to keep it in it's natural bumpy state. After the paint dries, I take a wet towel and basically polish it down, or I will take a wax buffer and buff the paint down, without using sand paper. The little bumps in the paint (flecks, or whatever you want to call them), cause the finished product to have more areas for light to bounce off from, kind of gives it more of a sparkly look. this is personal preference... professional spray guns come out looking even 90% of the time, but spray paint has it's own little qwirks.

#5 If I want to have colors blend, as I did with the white and yellow on the engine covers, I apply the main coat/color, and then while it is still wet, I spray the second coat/color, from the heaviest point to the lightest point of mixture. I have found this to give you better control over quantity of mix.

#6. Another personal preference. I like to put the 1st gloss coat on extra heavy. In many ways, I have to do this, to fill in the voids from the flecks of color paint. Once this dries, I sand the first gloss coat down, starting out with a 250-300 grit paper, depending on the roughness of the surface, then i work it with a 600 wet grit paper (all sand paper used on paint should be wet sand paper). After it is all sanded smooth, I hit it with as many gloss coats as I feel is necessary to make it shine.

#7. After the final coat, I will take a random orbital waxer, and put a buffing compond on it (very very very small amount), and buff the heck out of the piece.

anyway, as I said this all how I do it. A good friend of mine has his own techniques that vary from mine, and his results are very nice as well.

I have completely different techniques for painting on metal.

and, as a side note, the engine covers should not get hot enough to require high heat paint. the plastic isn't touching anything in the engine. If it required high heat paint, it wouldn't be made out of plastic in the first place. Plastic will melt at about the same temperature as the paint. If you paint anything metal in the engine compartment, or your brake calipers, use high heat paint.
 
Simple enough, Now what's your address so I can have you do mine ;D ;D ;D ;D


That is the most awesome custom vortec cover or intake cover that I have seen.


What's your address again ?
 
XRover said:
Simple enough, Now what's your address so I can have you do mine ;D ;D ;D ;D


That is the most awesome custom vortec cover or intake cover that I have seen.


What's your address again ?

how much are you willing to pay? >:D
 
spork,

i want to give this a shot, but would also like to know what kind, and where you got the matching SOM paint, as well as the other paints? thanks dude, i may end up buying a new piece and have you do it, hehe ;)

BTW, how much would you charge?? >:D
 
Spork,

That is SSSSSWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTT :eek:

The only bad thing about your cool mod is that it is covered up most of the time :cry: :cry:
 
That's amazing!
There's no way I could ever paint like that but I may try a solid color and add decals (fire, lightening, etc.) then gloss it. Not nearly as cool but at least I shouldn't mess it up.
Any thoughts?
 
no thoughts....

So far, I have had no takers on me painting the engine covers for them.... Just need to find out how much $ it is worth to ya.
 
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