Im looking for recommendations for underhood paint. Im going to be painting the chassis, firewall, inner fenders, engine, radiator, and well... everything else. What have you guys had good experiences with?

The best way I've found is to get a couple qts. of black auto enamel. I use Sherwin/Williams. Put a flattening agent( 5 parts paint / 2 parts flattener )in it to get the gloss to about 60 %. Then you can reduce it (30% ) and add a hardener and it will outlast any spray paint in a can. It will also go on evenly without streaks. It cost more and it takes a little longer but it's the best way to get the results most of us are looking for. I did the frame, under hood, wheel wells, entire bottom of the car and many other parts this way and it all came out perfect. This is how it would be done in a restoration shop . If your looking for perfection, this is the way to go...

Eastwoods under hood black looks great. Available in Qts. or rattlecans. graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Yeah, this is going ot have to be rattle-can style, but i'm going to do it right with primer and everything. I just dont have the facilities to use a spray gun.

I've got the engine out of my wifes Z28 and have been trying to repaint and freshen things up under the hood while its out. I've got all of the brake lines off along with the master cylinder and steering gear box. I also removed the wiper motor and wiper arms and linkage. I used POR 15 semi-gloss inside the wiper area in the cowl (there was a little rust there where water sits)and on the frame and the A-Arms. I used Eastwoods Underhood black on the firewall, underside of the hood and cowl area (sprayed it on the POR inside the wiper area while it was still a little wet).
I used POR Metal Mask on the steering box and on the brake lines and the brake proportioning valve. It looks pretty good but I think it is a little too bright for the steering box and will probably spray it with a cast blast type color along with the master cylinder.

I took off the tie-rod and centerlink section and used a round wire wheel on a drill to really cleand em down to the bare metal then painted them with krylon satin clear to keep them from rusting. It turned out really nice for little effort. It was well worth takeing em off to make it really look good.

If I did it over, I would use Krylon 1613 semi-flat black from Wal-mart instead of the underhood black. The color and texture are almost identical but I can get 3 cans of the Krylon fo the cost of a can of the underhood black.

I'm thinking of trying Kylon Semi-gloss on the inner fenders and on the radiator supports but I'm afraid it will be a little to glossy.

I'll try to get some pics posted soon of my progess on it.

Its not 100 percent correct but it does look pretty good I think. Minus an engine of course. :D

Dwayne

Check out the POR-15 system for any areas that have rust or are likely to get stone-chipped. That stuff is great around suspension parts and frames.

Hi,

What I did was to paint my underhood and suspension parts with black epoxy primer. The epoxy primer is semi gloss and is very resistant, especially against gasoline spills.

Also, I used epoxy primer for the engine. I throughly cleaned off the engine with a high pressure spray and wire brush, then primed it with epoxy primer. After drying, I use spray can engine enamel. I have never had any more problems with paint flaking off.

It cost a little more than spray cans, but by the quart or gallon it goes a long way and is very durable compared to spray can paint.

I first used spray can paint but was not durable in the engine compartment. I only use epoxy primer now.

Yep.. :cool:

I would paint the undersides just like the outside of the car.

Epoxy primer is NOT meant to be used as a stand alone topcoat, NO PRIMER is.

Theres a link to Mix different PPG products to achieve the desired gloss level you want.
Id use PPG DCC which is a single stage urethane, mix it with the proper ratio of hardener and DX 685(flattening agent) to achieve your gloss level.
http://www.chevelles.com/cgi-bin/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=008309

Althou a tad off topic, if you wanted to paint a car "SUEDE" or the flat primer look, you can use baseclear and get ANY color you like. PPG has a clear with 5-10% gloss, called 2060. You can add other clears in with that clear to get a glosser finish. Now you have the protection of a clearcoat with the flat primer look