Engine compartment

Mark, I paint for a living. Your going to want to do all the nasty work youself or pay big. I did my compartment myself. You can see the results in my Avitar. It would be hard to give a price untill you get to bare metal. I got one of my little buddies over to jump in there and strip with aircraft paint remover and then we wire brushed every crack and crevise. If you have it bare metal...to prime and paint.say 500-750......Have you found any suprises under there..ie...rust? I know you have that yellow pushbutton car, so I will share my Horror story with you....That dumba@@ rear trans mount with the stud extentions, well one of the studs broke off in the trans, with my infinite wisdom, we went to drill it out when it screwed itself into the trans and fell inside. After about 4 hours with a magnetic tool we gave up and pulled the tran out of the car, turned it upside down and shook the stud tip out..Hurray! This is when I figured it would be a good time to strip and paint back there. After all the stripping priming and watersanding. We reinstalled the polished transmission only to find that the clutch had gotten wet and rusted itself to the plate and flywheel..when it broke loose from me jerking it.. the disc flew apart. 800$ later I had a new centerforce. I got good at pulling the trans out. I can give you pointers if you intend to diy.

If it means anything, I stripped my engine compartment to bare metal as well. I used a spot sand blaster to get into a few smaller areas (messy) and wire brushed it as well before sending it off. I am having the door jambs, front radiator area and engine compartment painted. The engine compartment will be smoothed out first. The cost? Just a tad under $2,000.

lastpushbutton your Avitar looks great, Never seen that dual fan set up before. Haven't found any rust surprises yet just some melted wires.
My fingers are crossed.

I suspected about $750 to $1,000 so I guess it will end up costing about $1,500 to paint engine compartment isn't that how it works.

I suspect you can get it done a little cheaper than $1,500. I think I overpaid. My engine is out and the rear wiring harnes was unplugged and removed. The hoses have been removed as well. I think most of my expense is in the bodywork in the engine compartment. I bet you are right with $750.00 to $1,000.00.

Thanks Mark, I am happy with the performance of the A/C. Go check on a topic started by Hawaii that askes if anyone has reversed the fans. I go in to more detail abot the system...For your strip project..use a heat gun and then move on to the stripper...get every little bit. At one point i was using a razor blade holder to scrape. Put a flexable Band aid on rhat finger.

Mark,

You might consider some compartment upgrades before the painting begins. I know one project can become a monster growing out of control, and you may not want to see that happen, but might I suggest:
Moving your wiring and AC hoses into the right rear wheelwell and hiding your taillight wiring in the rear panel spaces.

You will then want to grind off all the brackets that held these items in place, and maybe fill some of the misc. holes in the compartment.

And as for painting, bear in mind if you use the fiberglass tub,it will wear off the paint at the contact points. You might consider contacting owner John Bender at Diamond Liners in Santa Fe Springs, 562-781-1045. His product is a cousin to Line X pickup bed spray (he was involved with it, but kept on upgrading the product on his own). I had it done on 2511 when it was repaired, and it is fantastic. MUCH better than Rhino Lining, and nicer than Line X. A photo cannot do it justice, but it is a 10 out of 10. The pickup bed lining stuff is bullet proof to tools, tub rubbing contact and body flex. And only about $400.

If you think you want to go the Diamond Liner route, call me for some additional pointers.

Larry 559-281-3497 (Fresno)

Thanks Larry the tub is going to be replaced with 180 headers. But I will be moving the wires under the fenders and installing a chassis kit prior to paint. Thanks for tips