I'm going to start my ambitious project of body work and paint soon. this being my first time doing any body work I have a question. Do most of you use rattle cans to paint your engine bays and if so what brand seems to be the best. I'm shooting for a nice driver and possibly an occasionall show or cruise. Thanks for any input. Ercil
When doing any automotive painting, I strongly recommend using an air compressor and a spray gun. The only exception to this is interior work like the metal dash and inside door frames. My reasoning is that it will give you a thicker more durable paint job at a greatly reduced cost over spray cans. Major part of the spray cans contents are the solvents and propellents used to make the spary can spray without clogging up. The mil application of actual paint is pretty thin. Cost wise, you can buy a quart of paint for about what 2 or 3 spray cans cost. For color - if going black on the engine compartment, I use Eastwoods Chassis Black. Spray can is about $15 and a whole quart is $28. Now with that said, there are MANY great cars out there that have been detailed with plain old Krylon and they look really good. I just am old school and think spraying it correctly will last longer and give better corrosion protection. Eric J
I just went to a local auto body garage and picked up a small amount of paint for nearly nothing. Bought an "el cheapo" gravity feed paint gun for the air compressor and walla...beautiful and shiny engine compartment.
Got exactly what I was looking for several good replies now all I have to do is make up my mind on what I want to do. I love this place. Btw I'm leaning towards ratllin it. Ercil
The engine bay in my 77' Maverick is Satin Black and it was sprayed out of rattle cans. It turned out great in my opinon. I did go through about 5 cans of paint to get it the way I wanted it. On the Stallion, we went with the same gloss black as the outside of the car. For that we sprayed it with the spray gun. For a gloss finish, I would recommend using a spray gun and an air compressor. For the satin finish, rattle cans will work fine as long as you take your time and lay the paint on evenly.
I agree with Jean. I used rattle cans on my engine compartment. I think it turned out great...also applied the same paint to the under side of the hood.
