Painted my engine bay and some odds and ends

First of all is an early shot of my progress on the engine bay. This was the first coat of black to cover up the ugly green (don't worry, I know not to throw paint over top old paint, me and my buddy sanded it down beforehand) This was about 3 day's work.



Next my buddy made it a pet project to make this voltage regulator as pretty as possible. I had no idea what it was at the time of painting so I figured "eh, why not?" Now that I know what it is I admit it was a little silly to put so much effort into such a little piece, but eh, why not?



This is it installed. I at this point had already found out what the part was and decided to make it all the more ridiculous by painting the bolts to match. Why? Because I could.



Here we have my new aluminum intake manifold (one of 3, anyway) all dirty and aching for some TLC.

 

A little elbow grease, carb and intake cleaner, and header paint later we have a purdied up intake manifold fit for a king. Note the blue bolts: If you haven't guessed already, that's the color my engine's going.



Here's that same manifold next to my rotten old 2bbl manifold. Quite the improvement if I do say so myself.



And finally some flare just to make it stand out a bit, as the bolts clearly weren't enough. Not bad for some engine enamel sprayed into the cap and applied with a model brush, eh?



Here's the finished product on the engine bay. We put some bed liner on the lower areas to help prevent damage from oil spills and the like in places that can't be easily reached to be wiped down. Note how much that voltage regulator stands out. I love it. You may also notice the gold an silver master cylinder. This was my friend's idea (it's how his Biuck Skylark came stock) and while it may not be typical to a Maverick, I still think it looks good.

 

Here's my new fan. For those of you who've seen the stock fans, you'll know this'll be a HUGE improvement.



Last but not least we have my bezels. If you can't tell, they're black.



My friend likes to make fun of my car for its "big Pomeranian eyes," but I think he'll change his tone when he sees how much better the car looks with black bezels.



And a quick mock up with the grill in place just to see the improvement. You might notice the badge is in the wrong place. That's to cover up a hole in the grill.



In my opinion, it looks MUCH better than before.



More to come as I work on my engine.

 

Just so you know, this was done entirely by two teenagers. The engine bay, anyway. Everything else were just things I did in my spare time. I know it's not the best, but at least it's something I can be proud to say I did myself.
Thanks for looking, I hope to share more soon.

 

Looks like you put quite a bit of work into it. Good job.

 

looks good.
one thing. the voltage regulator grounds out by its outer shell through the bolts to the inner fender apron. paint will insulate the grounding. get 2 star lock washer and put them between the regulator and fender on the bolts. they will cut through the paint and give you a good ground.

 

Hey thanks for the advice Bryant. I had no idea.

 

looks awesome an i really like the look of the hood on the car too. How much paint did it take to complete the engine bay?

 

Your car is looking Great....

 

Looks great. Funny, I started building Mavs in the 80's when I was a young teenager. Here you guys are still messin with these old cars same as I did 25 years ago. How cool is that.

 

We used about 2 and a half to 3 cans of primer, a can and a half of Rust Reformer black, and 4 cans of satin black plus some touch up from a 5th can. We had to respray a few spots that had pretty bad running (entirely our fault as we tried to paint the horn at every angle when it was mounted) and I also painted some other parts like the reinforcements, so I may have taken a bit more than average. I used used 2 cans of bed liner, though I was a little generous on some places. The silver parts were sprayed with some left over header paint my buddy had and the blue was done with some engine paint. The blue is actually lighter than Ford engine blue, but it's the closest fit and I actually like the color more.

 

Nice work!

 

Great work, Gud show my friends. I like it. I did my master cyl the same colors last year b4 it was installed.

 

alright awesome, now i have an idea of what it might take for mine. Thanks for the info bud!

 

Looking good