Painting engine bay and wheel wells

[dmcummins]

Ive got my 73 in pieces and getting it ready for paint. Ive got the engine out and I plan on taking off the suspension parts. Ive got a few spots where I need to spray some more undercoating here and there and then I'll be ready to paint. The car was originally silver and I plan on going back with a silver base coat clear coat. I can see where the original silver was sprayed in the engine bay but not sure to what extent everywhere else. Was all of the inside of the fenders painted? What about the bottom of the car?

Im not worried about being exactly correct but Im wondering what others have done. I assume I can just clean and paint over the undercoating. I was thinking about painting the engine bay and fenders silver and then paint the very bottom black.

[Fishcop]

Paint it all body colour... you'll be very happy with the result

[Kryptonite]

Painted engine comp of my '73 silver same as body.Not sure if correct but much brighter.Wil use black undercoating in wheelwells and under floorpan
Manfred.

[JBO]

The engine bay looks better in body color. However, I agree with Manfred that the wheel wells look better in black (particularly if they are not kept perfectly clean), though they came from the factory body color.

[dmcummins]

It would definatly be easier to just spray some fresh undercoating in the wheel wells and let it go at that. The car was resprayed black and that included the trunk and engine bay. It would probably make more sense not to go to overboard on this car.

Did you guys stop at the shock towers or paint all the way down to the seat bottoms and torsion bar tubes.

[Kryptonite]

Painted Silver only down to engine tin gasket,will be black from engine down.
Manfred.

[frankc]

I was wondering about this myself. My car is silver, but if I remember correctly, the floor pan and engine compartment appeared to be more of a non-metallic grey color.

Personally I like the bottom, wheel wells and engine compartment the same as body color. It does take a little work once a year or so to clean them up, but when they're clean they look niiiiice.

[austin552]

Here's the latest with my 2.2l. Got to cut those d--n hoses!

[Neilk]

On a '73 the whole car is more or less painted the same color. So spray the whole engine compartment and wheel wells. I say more or less because in some areas it is almost like a thin dusting of paint.

[Britain Smith]

I would paint it body color, but I am a little bias...









-Britain