detailing your engine bay...

i've always detailed my engine bay religiously (not to mention my exterior of my vehicle as well). but what i have found is an excellent write up of how to keep your engine bay clean with a little bit of work every few months or so.

http://www.guidetodetailing.com/articles.php?articleId=25

(*cough cough... a cleaner engine bay not only shows that you maintain your vehicle religiously, but also helps to keep the value of your vehicle up as a result)

i'm a big fan of using an air compressor after i'm done detailing my engine bay just to blow off all the excess water... then what i do is wipe off the remaing parts quickly with a dry towel. then the rest is left to be sun-dried with the hood open in the sun for about 20 minutes or so.

cool thanks for the link.

yeah, figured that would help out a good bit. just found it one day while surfing the internet and thought i'd post it here to help others out!

too bad im to lazy to do it, but when im getting ready for the next show (thats next next saturday) i get the cleanin...or at least my friends will.

Yeah I am glad to see a link like that one.

I have been looking for some more info on cleaning the engine bay.

I haven't really cleaned mine out to much because I wasn't sure what to use. Mainly I was afraid of using something that would eat at my hoses and any thing else that was rubber.

Too bad I don't have a hose, I guess I could just go to a car wash and just use one of the sprayers there, just keep it on a low setting.

Any tips on detailing metal? Any good rust removers out there? I have some little specks of spot rust on my heat sheald and I would like see if I can get them off of just keep the rest of the rust away.

simply, for you heat shield... you can sand that away. and for detailing metal, i'm not too sure what to use for that. maybe just wipe it down real good and wax a bit over it if you get it all prettied up nicely.



Types: There are different types of sandpaper, each has a specific use. Generally there are 2 categories of sand paper, wet and dry. Sand papers are primarily made of sand and/or silica and garnet, adhered to a ground of resin on paper.

Grades of paper: Sandpaper is manufactured in many grades, also known as levels of coarseness, or ‘grit’. The lower the grade, or grit of sandpaper, the coarser, and stronger abrading power of that paper.



Quick chart - Sandpaper

30 grit extremely coarse
60 grit Coarse
80 grit coarse - recommended for removing rust from metal, difficult dried paint areas
100 grit coarse - recommended for removing rust from metal, difficult dried paint areas
120 grit recommended for general purpose, drywall patches
180 grit recommended for general purpose, drywall patches
220 grit recommended for general purpose, furniture
240 grit recommended for general purpose, furniture
320 grit recommended for general purpose, furniture and first sand for fine finishing
400 grit recommended for fine finishing, polishing, gilding
600 grit recommended for fine finishing, polishing, gilding
800 grit recommended for fine finishing, polishing, gilding
1000 grit recommended for fine finishing, polishing, gilding
1200 grit recommended for hand rubbed finishes, fine finishing, polishing, gilding
1600 grit extremely fine. Polishing, jewelry

Sanding methods:

Knowing your intention for the finished product before starting will make it easier to properly prepare the item being treated. The common approach to sanding is to begin with a lower grit paper, or coarser paper, and increase the fineness of the sandpaper until desired results are achieved.

Metal:

Begin with loosening and scraping any loose paint or rust with a metal-toothed brush or coarse steel wool. Starting with a coarse grade of sandpaper move regularly over surface. Continue in this manner with increasingly finer grades of sandpaper until sufficient level of desired smoothness.

i whipe my engine compartment down after every wash, and dress the plastics up a bit. stays pretty clean, onsidering i wash my car maybe 2 times a week haha i cant stand a dirty car.


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oh6siXx, Where'd you get the metal block cover (or whatever you call it)? Mines just the standard black, and I was thinking about doing something to spruce it up.

thats the stock cover, i painted it at work, its basecoat/clearcoat, not spray paint. i plan on painting more parts too..ill post pics asap.

Wait, what? What kind of paint do you have that doesn't bake off with the heat?

its the same exact paint thats on every car out there, i did 3 coats of base color then 2 coats of clear. once its cured its not gona break down and melt, plus its plastic and a sprayed down an adhesion premoter so it wont come off.

Thedfo, once I get my car back from the dealer tomorrow I will show you another painted engine cover.  Hopefully it wull give you some design ideas and then you to can go ahead and paint yours.  Real simple -  clean good, primer, paint, clear coat.

EDIT: Here ya go.

that looks good RJB_M6. i plan on painting a few other pieces under the hood when i get some time. im actually going to be doing some custom paint work to my car so im going to tie it all in with under the hood as well.  oh and rjb_m6 do you have a video on youtube of your car? your engine bay looks familiar to one i saw on there.

No I don't.  There are a lot of 6's with the same paint scheme I have (hence how I came up with mine hehe)

lol well i just figured id ask lol.

heh yupp.

So, just any kind of paint? Well, not wood paint obviously, but do I need to go to an auto store and get the expensive car paint?

just one question, if you apply a degreaser in the engine bay, will this remove the rustproofing (yellow stuff got it done at the dealer)???

This was my favorite part of the article....

"If you have compressed air available, this is the best way to remove old leaves, dead cats, and such. "

I dont know if you all found it funny, but why???

no the degreaser wont remove the protective coatings the dealer applied, unless you have some Seriously potent stuff, lol take some greased lightning/mr.green..etc and go for it!