Pinto Car Club of America

I'm trying to clean up the engine compartment on my Pinto to repaint it. Any good tips on removing the grease and gunk and getting it prepped to paint? Thanks!

one thing that worked for me was Easyoff and an Engine degreaser.

I used Palm Olive dish soap to degrease every thing and the green scrubby pads, it worked perfectly. I didn't use easy off because I didn't want to damage any of my rubber plugs or any of the wiring harnesses.
Most of the metallic parts that will unbolt from the engine bay or the engine compartment got the easy off treatment. 
For the plastic stuff like the window washer resevoire, intake duct, and battery hold down, I cleaned them off with "Goo Be Gone" a kind of bug and tar remover which made everything look like it had just come out of an oem box.
  Anything that can rust gets sprayed with Rustoleum rust reformer primer, it converts rust to magnetite and stops the spread, plus it's a nice flat black.
   If I want something to be glossy, I then put another coat of regular filler primer over the rust reformer and let it dry for a day, and then cover with the paint of my choice.

For degreasing, I use a product called Oil Eater. I buy it at Costco, but would assume it can be purchased elsewhere. Spray it on...let sit for about 15 minutes...hose it off. Heavy grease might take a pressure washer. After that, hand wash with liquid dish soap and water. Wipe down with thinner before applying the paint to make sure there is no residue. Oil Eater dissolves grease and oil and the water just washes it right off. It doesn't harm plastic or rubber, but will dull polished aluminum surfaces. Very nice stuff and easy to use!