painting the engine cover

Baas140

Baas140

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hey fellas, i was just wondering if anyone has tried to paint the engine cover on their lincoln... i own a grand prix, and on the grand prix forum, a bunch of people have done it and it looks really sharp... im wondering since the cover on the lincoln is much bigger, if it would look gawdy and a bit to much... just wondering if anyone has done it, seen it, and/or what they think about it... im tryin to come up with some simpler, cheaper ways to make the ls stand out a bit as of now... thanks guys
bryan
 
Extra brake caliper high temp paint with too much time on my hands.

Motor#2.jpg


Motor#3.jpg
 
Took the cover off, washed it, wiped it down with alcohol, masked it off, and painted it with a couple of coats with 5 min. dry time in between. Took all of one hour including dry time.
 
I like that a lot! Isn't the 03+ LS engine cover smoother than the 00-02 cover? When I had mine painted the cover had a texture to it which made it a little harder to look right.
 
GCWimmer's engine cover looks great. I would take it a step further by (1) washing the engine comparment (its filthy), and (2) getting a set of strut tower covers from LSK and painting those to match! :D
 
That looks great, and red as well. It would look good on my red car.
A couple of questions, for you GC, How long has it been painted, and are there any problems with flaking, or chipping?
Thanks in advance!
 
ToddG said:
GCWimmer's engine cover looks great. I would take it a step further by (1) washing the engine comparment (its filthy), and (2) getting a set of strut tower covers from LSK and painting those to match! :D
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Good idea Todd! ;)
 
gcwimmer said:
Extra brake caliper high temp paint with too much time on my hands.
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WOW, that looks really good! Not over the top; just right! Now you just need to throw some dressing on the plastic to complete the look:D
 
I was thinking of having mine painted the color of the car, along with the coil covers whenever I get around to sanding and priming my spare rear surround to be painted..

Looks good, GC!!
 
that looks really nice... im gonna have to try something like that with mine to make it stand out...
 
Thanks everyone for the positive comments.

I’m fairly conservative (Accountant), and is hard to know when to stop. I looked at the strut covers but have been putting my money in performance lately.

I got the idea from another member a couple of years ago; he fully painted his silver and looked very nice.

It has been a year now and no worst for wear looks the same as day one. Make sure you use high temperature pain like engine, caliper. The photos were taken at the time I painted it and I have washed the engine compartment since.
 
ToddG said:
GCWimmer's engine cover looks great. I would take it a step further by (1) washing the engine comparment (its filthy), and (2) getting a set of strut tower covers from LSK and painting those to match! :D
Click to expand...


Just wondering... should we be dousing our engine bays with water? Just thinking about the coil on plug issue. Has anyone done their engine bay before? I'd love to see a how-to.
 
pektel said:
Just wondering... should we be dousing our engine bays with water? Just thinking about the coil on plug issue. Has anyone done their engine bay before? I'd love to see a how-to.
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I've washed mine plenty of times. Just be careful. Do it while the engine is cold. Use low pressure water and degreaser. Wipe everything down really well afterwards; especially the electronic parts.
 
Do we need to cover any parts with plastic wrap or wd40? Alternator, for instance?
 
I just drape rags over the highly electrical stuff. I don't cover the alternator. Do not do this while the car is running. Low pressure water is the key.
 
Which stuff do you cover? I appreciate the advice, I've been wanting to do this for months. And when you say low pressure, do you mean open garden hose low pressure? Or a hose with a spray attachment? I'm assuming as long as it's not a pressure washer i should be okay.

One last thing. What type of degreaser/ APC do you recommend?
 
I use "Purple Power" or "Castrol Super Clean". I use a garden hose with a nozel on it to rinse it down; not the jet setting, I use the shower setting. I cover up anything with a lot of wires going to it. This is what I DON'T get wet:

  • Fuse box covers
  • Wires going to the intake
  • Wires going to the wiring harness on the passenger side
 
This may just be a really stupid question, but is there really any benefit to painting the cover? Is there really any benefit in having the engine cover at all??

I mean I'm the kind of guy that has no use for underhood 'flash'. If something has a real benefit, then I'm all for it.
But as far as I am aware, the engine cover was a cheap way for FMC to avoid having to do a lot of machining to "pretty" up the engine compartment.
So I look at it like this, Does it matter what the finish on the valve covers looks like if the car running down the road??

Maybe its just because I don't open my hood except when I need to maintain my vehicle.
To me the covers under there are just that much more crap that I have to remove to get in to do anything with the motor.

Am I the only one that feels this way???
You can keep the show, I just want the Go
 
Thanks. Do you use a dressing as well? Or just the cleaner?
 
JES_LS said:
This may just be a really stupid question, but is there really any benefit to painting the cover? Is there really any benefit in having the engine cover at all??

I mean I'm the kind of guy that has no use for underhood 'flash'. If something has a real benefit, then I'm all for it.
But as far as I am aware, the engine cover was a cheap way for FMC to avoid having to do a lot of machining to "pretty" up the engine compartment.
So I look at it like this, Does it matter what the finish on the valve covers looks like if the car running down the road??

Maybe its just because I don't open my hood except when I need to maintain my vehicle.
To me the covers under there are just that much more crap that I have to remove to get in to do anything with the motor.

Am I the only one that feels this way???
You can keep the show, I just want the Go
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I had mine removed for a little while and the intake apparently melted part of the sound deadening material that lines the inside of the hood. Also a V6, so our covers ain't as pretty as the ones that say "V8". hehe.
 
daves2000ls said:
I had mine removed for a little while and the intake apparently melted part of the sound deadening material that lines the inside of the hood. Also a V6, so our covers ain't as pretty as the ones that say "V8". hehe.
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interesting that you say the intake melted the sound mat, since it only covers part of the intake on the v6 anyway, I wonder why that occurred????

look I've owned a some cars with very ugly motors (you should have seen the 3.8 buickv6 swapped into my 79 chevy monza!!), so I don't really care what the motor looks like. As long as it runs good, I'm happy.
 
Yeah, the melted part looks like its melted along the top ridges of the intake. I think it happened when I was having an overheating issue though. Actually, I'll have to check, it might be off right now.
 
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