Paint & Body Work - N00b painting the engine bay?

I have the motor out of the car and thought about painting the engine bay. Its pretty empty in there, does the current dull paint need to be sanded before laying down primer? Or would a quick degreseing do just fine? Think its possible to knock it out in a day? Were going to have REALLY nice weather here in MI tomorrow and id like to get it done! And tips? Not really done much painting before? Any paint recommendations? Im just reshooting white, but i want it to be gloss unlike the dull factory finish.

yeah get all the grease out n atleast sand a good layer or atleast the clear off the bay....u dont have to sand all the way to the metal but make sure u get a layer off...thats the way i always do it when painting something

I was under the impression the engine bay was never cleared, thus why its so dull and prone to getting dirty and being hard to clean? It feels quite rough for car paint IMHO?

well ive always worked on older cars and on some the bay had been painted b4 and some had clear thats what i went from but if it has no clear i would still go ahead and atleast sand a bit off.....after ur done sanding clean it up with some tack cloth and then some rubbing alcohol just to make sure u got all the grease out of it....thats how ive always done it...hope this helped

Just need to scuff it up and remove all the grease and stuff in there.

Just need to scuff it up and remove all the grease and stuff in there.

Key word scuff it up...... Never just paint over the surface. You need it scuffed up a little so the paint will bond to it. and you won't have to worry about it chipping up... Make sure its clean. May want to scuff it up and pick up some prepsol to wipe it down with.

Yes prep is what needs to be focused on. You can fix runs and lite spots

Got it prepped and primered. I hope to lay some color tonight, but I have no idea what kind of paint I should use, just some automotive rustoleum? Also what color will be the closest match to the arctic white that the car is? Can they custom mix or match a spray can?

i painted a couple engine bays while in the engine swap process all i did was use some simple green and sprayed the whole bay let it sit for like 10mins and spray again then i used my presure washer then i dried up the water then i did light sanding with 800 grit then i primered the bay then i painted it......it takes about 1 whole day.

Post before and after pics. pleaseeeeeeeeeee

I don't plan on priming mine i am going with the same color that is just more paint.

Got it prepped and primered. I hope to lay some color tonight, but I have no idea what kind of paint I should use, just some automotive rustoleum? Also what color will be the closest match to the arctic white that the car is? Can they custom mix or match a spray can?

Did you try either a GM parts counter or the Duplicolor brand sold at Autozone etc. I found that Duplicolor made my OEM Torch Red and it was an exact match. I used 2 small cans and then bought a 2 part clearcoat spray called 2K that goes on top of it all. Make sure you scuff the primer if it has been a few days dryed with something like a green 3m pad. I spent less than $40 total and its never looked this good since it was brand new....

I just sprayed my engine bay this weekend. Degreased everything real good, cleaned everything several times. Scuffed everything with a red scotchbrite pad, then cleaned everything again. Used a wax/grease remover and tack rag before spraying anything. I used duplicolor NBM touchup paint and clear coat, it turned out surprisingly good!

Here's what I did using duplicolor etc...

Looks like it turned out pretty good. But I don't know if it was the light or not but to me it looks more orange than red.

^ yeah i noticed that too, but all in all it looks pretty good. Mine needs it but i dont want to pull the motor lol

Thanks for the comments and yes in my garage the lights are yellowish so my car looks very bright red/orange in daylight its just regular Torch red... the duplicolor color match is very good though, and the gloss clear makes the whole thing before I did that I left the red to dry a few days and it just wasn't that shiny.... I'm sure a pro painter could make it look nicer but for what I spent I'm happy. You could do a semi decent job not pulling the motor and just masking it and pulling as much wiring etc out of the way but its so much easier to paint standing inside the engine bay area, wish I had pic of me doing that...