repainting engine bay

[RobbyPs13]

I am wondering what the proper steps and or what the best ways of going about prepping and repainting my engine bay would be? What grit sandpaper, type of paint... etc? Thanks!!!

[RobbyPs13]

All these responses are so helpful haha

[dkmura]

I'd ask why you'd want to repaint it in the first place. A good degreasing or steam clean can get an engine bay looking like new. Even if you're going to repaint anyway, getting all the goo out from under all the tabs, mounts and other features has to be job #1.

[RobbyPs13]

whoever had the car before me spray painted sections baby blue and the orignal color is red, it looks terrible.

[Bee2]

Everything depends on how nice of a job you want to do.

[dkmura]

^^Good point. With the mess the previous owner made, you might want to just apply a paint stripper and get all the old paint off. Then you'd need a light sanding (#300 grit), a wipe down with a tack rag and a good rustproofing primer. After this dries thoroughly, put your base color down and call it good.

[Colorado S14]

Buy some heavy duty de-greaser. Get some 200 grit, then go to 400 grit. Spray, hit with 600 grit, rinse, repeat.

Just make sure that everything gets pulled, and if it cannot get pulled then cover with tape and try to at least move it away from the paint.

[aaronscomp]

clean it 320 it then scotch brite the piss out of it just to make sure everything is scuffed so there will be no chipping paint

[RobbyPs13]

thanks for the advice everyone cant wait to post pics and let you all know how it went!

[Superleggera]

Are you planning on stripping it to bare metal or just scuffing and repainting? If you are taking the bare metal route because of all the intricate angles a sand blaster with a light media might come in handy.