Engine Bay black or body color?

[TomoHawk]

What would it be hiding?

Edited April 8, 2014 by TomoHawk

[Oiluj]

Engine bays are often painted black to hide a color change or stained / faded body color paint.

Is it a crime? No, and it can look very nice. Will it potentially hurt the resale value of the car? Probably.

My vote falls in the body color camp.

However, if I were refreshing a car to be my daily driver, I would using black paint in the engine bay. It's easy to apply so that it looks good and is a way to save money by doing it yourself. I would not POR-15 it though for reasons stated above. I feel the same about undercoat. Mine came to me undercoated, (from the dealer according to the paperwork), but I wish it wasn't.

[TomoHawk]

To know if a black engine bay is covering up something, you'd have to look closely at the rest of the vehicle.

For a DD, undercoating would be great. But for a sporty car driven occasionally or for show, undercoating works against you.

[jalexquijano]

On ‎2014‎-‎04‎-‎07 at 4:08 PM, jfa.series1 said:

The previous posts with a black engine bay are really well done. Here's another vote for sticking with the factory approach.

Im planning on painting my car 904 White.  Should the engine bay be painted using glossy black as shown in your picture in those áreas or should it all be the same color of the car? I just want to be sure it came that way from the Factory. In which áreas should i use POR-15? the trunk and the floors only?

[jfa.series1]

The complete engine bay should be painted in the body color if you are planning to stick with the factory approach.  The front of the radiator bulkhead was painted in a dull (not flat) black originally.  I chose to use a gloss black to make it easier to keep clean.  Satin black would be a good option that would be closer to the original factory look but still pretty easy to keep clean.  Flat black will hold dirt and is not easy to clean.  Check the picture closely - there are five mounting points for the grill that also get painted black.

[jalexquijano]

2 hours ago, jfa.series1 said:

The complete engine bay should be painted in the body color if you are planning to stick with the factory approach.  The front of the radiator bulkhead was painted in a dull (not flat) black originally.  I chose to use a gloss black to make it easier to keep clean.  Satin black would be a good option that would be closer to the original factory look but still pretty easy to keep clean.  Flat black will hold dirt and is not easy to clean.  Check the picture closely - there are five mounting points for the grill that also get painted black.

Is this exactly how it came from Factory, why most owners just paint it the same color as the car? In this sense, will a pint of PPG glossy black work? Do you have more pictures of your car? I would like to know exactly where should i use POR 15 and where not? In example the floors and trunk, etc?

[jfa.series1]

Please stop with the "exactly" - its a bit irritating.  I painted the same area as Nissan but its not "exact" because I used gloss paint for the reasons I explained.  I don't know why other don't paint this area.  It will take only an ounce or two to paint that bulkhead.  Since Nissan never used POR-15, you should use it wherever you think its needed.  As to more pictures, of course I do.  Many of them are in this YouTube video I made up of my restoration project but don't expect me to clutter this forum with them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L1oxFQMfcU

[sweatybetty]

20 hours ago, jfa.series1 said:

The complete engine bay should be painted in the body color if you are planning to stick with the factory approach.  The front of the radiator bulkhead was painted in a dull (not flat) black originally.  I chose to use a gloss black to make it easier to keep clean.  Satin black would be a good option that would be closer to the original factory look but still pretty easy to keep clean.  Flat black will hold dirt and is not easy to clean.  Check the picture closely - there are five mounting points for the grill that also get painted black.

i wondered about that, but it makes sense. great idea. why not go all the way up to the bottom of the radiator support?

[jfa.series1]

9 minutes ago, sweatybetty said:

i wondered about that, but it makes sense. great idea. why not go all the way up to the bottom of the radiator support?

Because the factory did not paint it that way.  I chose to match the surfaces and pattern as it came from the factory, just a different finish.

[the_tool_man]

Just paint the car and engine bay black.  Best of both worlds.

[jalexquijano]

Why dont you take a look at this restoration where it is all KILIMANJARO WHITE 904, no black anywhere around:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwZ4hiyz2vg

Do you really need to remove the whole engine and wiring to accomplish this? Just removing the engine is a lot of work!

 

 

[Patcon]

I don't understand! You want the car pristine and painted correctly but you don't want to pull the engine to paint the engine bay! Then when one (jfa.series1) of the foremost experts on the factory methods tells you they painted them black on the radiator support you question that! If you want it factory, black out the lower radiator support! If you don't want it factory then don't! But don't question whether the information is good when it comes from an original owner that won 1st place last year at Zcon just because some one on Youtube did it different

I'm done...