PINTO CAR CLUB of AMERICA

Shiny is Good! => General Pinto Talk => Topic started by: 65ShelbyClone on August 24, 2014, 01:27:28 PM

Title: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: 65ShelbyClone on August 24, 2014, 01:27:28 PM

The old engine is out and I want to tidy up the engine bay while I have the opportunity, but I'm not ready to pull the wiring and all and shoot with expensive body paint. I was thinking about doing semigloss or satin black like a lot of muscle cars have as a stopgap. I figure it will also help hide a lot of the busy hoses and wiring endemic to EFI systems.

The car is medium lime metallic (4F), BTW. What do you all think?

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: Mason66 on August 24, 2014, 01:31:19 PM

It is very fashionable to pain the engine compartment the body color, but that will go out of style soon enough.

If the car is going to be a driver, it should be black.  Engines leak oil and there are other fluids that are going to be hard to clean on the body color paint.  There are a lot of small spaces that are hard to clean.

This is just my opinion of course.

Just like the huge wheels on all cars, the engine color will go out of style.

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: 74 PintoWagon on August 24, 2014, 07:34:26 PM

I've always been partial to black under the hood..

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: russosborne on August 24, 2014, 10:16:21 PM

I have the same situation, I want it to be body color, but I am likely years away from painting the car, so for now it is going to be satin black. Heck, I don't even know what color the body will be yet.
You really can't go wrong with the black.
Russ

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: 65ShelbyClone on August 24, 2014, 10:37:24 PM

I dug up some pictures in my archive of a medium lime Pinto with a 2.3T and black engine bay and I must say it doesn't look bad at all. I guess that tears it; $8 can of black instead of $50 worth of custom mix in an aerosol.

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: Srt on August 25, 2014, 03:59:19 AM

Weren't they all 'body' color all around? 


I know my '71 was. 


A dark green metallic.  I kept it very clean.


Of course in those days there wasn't much clutter under the hood either. 


I would vote for the body  colored engine bay in a heartbeat

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: amc49 on August 25, 2014, 05:36:35 AM

OEM under the hood is body color on every car I've ever seen.......... .........altho ugh I could be wrong.

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: 74 PintoWagon on August 25, 2014, 07:47:32 AM

Mine is body color..

Title: Re: Black engine bay or body color?
Post by: 65ShelbyClone on August 25, 2014, 09:59:47 AM

I think Ford started doing body color under the hood around the time the Pinto came out. Been doing it ever since AFAIK, I'm sure because it's cheaper than adding the extra step of shooting the bay black.

I plan to redo it in the original green when the engine comes back out for a rebuild in the foreseeable future. It has 214k already, so I figure by 250 it will be ready. I just need something to cover the bare metal right now. The battery area needs repair and I have to weld the engine mounts in.