ok im in debate with myself here and im leaving it to the board to solve it. im going to be starting on my 1994 camaro project shortley has far as the paint and body work goes. im paint the car dark spiral grey with a coat of transparent black over it to give it a darker contrast and more grey to black flop. now heres the thing i dont know weather or not i want to paint the engine bay satin black or the color of the car. i like both im just having trouble deciding whats going to look the best. this car is a drag/show car. give me your opinions and feel free to post pics if you have them.

 

i wouldn't say satin black absolutely cannot work, but i'd be leery about painting the engine bay something so close to the color of grime and grease.

-sectari

 

No brainer....color of the car.

 

since its a drag/show car i think it would look "cleaner" painted the same color as the car

 

well ive just been debating different blacks for the engine bay only because i think it would make the motor stand out more since im painting the block and intake. im just trying to get as many opinions as possible.

 

i would say color of car... Flows nicer!!

 

color of the car

 

I think that IS the reason to paint the firewall, inner fender panels, etc. the same color as the car. Your engine will stand out and look good painted the same color. There are some great engine bays that are coordinated that way and they look great. The attached pictures are not of my car but should give you some ideas. The engine on the stand my be close to your gray.

D.J.

 

^^^ that ls1 is sick. thanks for the input. come on guys lets see some more opinions and pics.

 

gloss black or DSG would both look good. gloss Black IMO can make the engine look like a jewel in the middle if done right.

 

It is nice and not a lot of work to have yours looking that way. Even with stock parts they can really look nice. Those Katech covers and coil brackets are high end stuff that I won't be using on my motor. I plan to polish up the stock covers and chrome the coil brackets. The cost for doing that work is next to nothing as I will do the polishing in my shop. And then we have these.

 

And last but not least this guys. Pretty much all done with paint and almost everything stock, (under hood sheetmetal). Just attention to detail. Just think about what this would look like flat black. You get the idea.

D.J.

 

the color of the car im leaning twords. gloss black is nice on black cars but i dont think its nice on other colors. i paint cars and do body work i so mean its not hard for me either way and its a project so im going to put the time and effort into it. im also thinking of smoothing out all the seems to give it a really clean look aswell.

 

I'm with you on this. I am using a Carbon black and Mineral Blue, (Planet Color Paint) that is very dark as well as my outside and interior colors as my 64 Chevy II has a lot of painted surfaces on the inside. I'll use the Dark Mineral Blue on the upper surfaces, (fender tops, roof, trunk, top of doors, top of quarters, etc) and then the lower sections of the car will be the Carbon. All of the interior metal, (steering column, dash, interior door tops/bottoms and rear metal will be the Mineral). I will smooth the firewall out and paint it the Mineral Blue to match the upper surface. Inner fender's, clip frame, down bars, motor mounts will be painted silver base clear. I'm doing a great deal of detail work to the engine compartment and am smoothing everything and either polishing or painting everything much like the last picture above. I'm using polished stainless hardware for all the fasteners. I have a polisher so that's just my labor and I work for free. All of the aluminum engine parts will be polished and Zoop sealed or clear coated. I'm painting the block, (It's LSX orange right now) gloss silver. I bought a polished Front Runner assy serpentine belt drive from Vintage Air, (if they ever send it to me).

I have done many cars for other people but never anything like this. I would lose my butt if I had to charge someone for doing this in fact I wouldn't do this for anyone. This may be the last car I ever build so I want it to be my best. When it's finished I want to say I did everything myself and I mean everything. The interior is going to be a real challenge but I think I can make it look nice as well.

You are a paint and body guy so you know how much fun it is to do something like this.

D.J.

 

I think if you did gloss black it would look sharp. I think the black makes the Crome and the braided lines stand out alot more. Granted the same color cars flow better, but to make it POP in my opinion Gloss Black. The reason satin or flat would look bad is one no reflection, and two it would look dirty all the time. If the bay shines like the car, then its all pretty uniform anyhow, and the black will push the eyes to the SHINEY PARTS....
Just my .02

 

yaeh i know how much fun all this stuff is. im picky and everything has to be near perfect. im doing a lot of detail work such as mentioned with the stainless bolts and polished aluminum and i got some other stuff im doing. i have a few custom things im going to be building for the interior but everyons going to have to wait and see. im not doing a sub box or anything like that incase anyone thinks that lol. well keep your eyes out for the progress thread. im at a hault right now because im waiting to start the body work. i gotta get the rest of the interior out and then begin in the beginning of february.

 

IMO i would do do it flat black so that way at night, no one sees what u have plus it may be hard during the day. but u want a show car and wanna show off what u have

 

Color of car.

 

i did satin black in mine and im happy with it...really clean look..but if you can afford to do a good job with the body color then do it that way..i had to go teh cheaper route

 

yeah money isnt an issue and since i do paint and body work for a living i get my supplies at cost. post some pics of your car.