Making My Engine Compartment Respectable Looking

Changing out the body bushings to this point is pretty straightforward. My workspace is a little tight on the passenger side but not undoable. The 6” X 6” I cut a groove in for the pinch weld is working great. The drivers side is going to be a little trickier due to the brake and fuel line location, but at least I have more room to work. Next up will be doing over the POR 15 coating that delaminated from the front floor pans forward. Found out the hard way that POR 15 doesn’t like the smooth floor pans, the smooth surface of the transmission tunnel, as well as most of the engine compartment frame rails . Getting ready to raise the right side before I realized I forgot to disconnect the steering shaft. The pictures will show the floor pans before I roughed them up.Just a few pictures t show where I’m at nw

 

Looking great!

 

If the metal isn’t rusty don’t use POR15. It sticks like crazy to rust. Is you have nice clean metal use another paint like epoxy primer.

 

I have POR15 Rust preventive coating as well as POR 15 Top Coat fro the previous application . All things being equal , any coating that prevents rust and looks good a a you recommend ?
any spray can that can look good and protect the underside . Looking for a factory like satin finish . Trying not to get bogged down with underside cosmetics.

 

Max - are you saying to use the epoxy primer then the POR for clean metal?

 

My experience is the POR doesn't adhere well to clean metal(came off in sheets). I would use epoxy primer in that case.

If there is a surface coating of rust, knocking it off with wire brush and using the POR15 is great as it sticks like crazy.

 

Did you do full strength mineral spirits then follow up with simple green or did you mix the two?

 

Max - what do you top coat the epoxy primer with?

 

Took some picts of lifting the body up first on the passenger side . After balancing the jack in the middle of the wood , 3 pumps is all it took to separate the body. Looking at the top of the frame rail , I want to hit it with POR15 but removing 55 yrs of grease and powdered surface rust in that confined area will be a PITA .some more picts raising the body

may take your advice on the smooth surfaces and just spray them and POR 15 the frame. What spray paint did you use ?

 

I used a satin black Duplicolor rattle can. WARNING! I am not at all saying this is the correct or the best thing, Just what I had on hand...

 

Looking at the firewall , trying get ready for paint ( leaning towards satin ) , what’s the suggested prep before painting . I see some areas where the sealer is missing and other areas it’s caked on like thick cake icing . Mostly degreased ,is priming and further stripping needed ? Not going for concourse just sharp and neat.

 

I did mine last year semigloss. I just scrubbed with mineral spirits after pressure washing.

 

Did you have any sealant on your firewall ? Did you paint over it ? Which semi gloss did you use ??

 

Painted over original sealant. I just used a little semigloss clear rustoleum over the original paint and markings behind the brake booster. Everything else was semigloss black duplicolor I believe. I painted the top behind the rubber hood seal satin black. I'm happy the way it turned out.

 

I have the firewall scraped/ scrubbed to where it’s just about ready for paint Not sure if I’m going to take the the HVAC box off as I’m changing the core and blower motor. I guessing it would make the core removal easier but I’m might be opening another can of worms. I’m going with satin on the firewall and inner fenders with a semigloss on the frame and rad support.

 

Peer pressure does strange things to people

 

Got most of the paint work on the underside done, now some drama on the bushings . The passenger side mid door bushing looks like the only one the capture nut is deteriorated to the point it has to be repaired . Cutting the floor pan away confirmed that . Will be fabricating a patch with a new capture nut .

 

I noticed. You were supposed to do this, not that...