Engine Cover: How I dun it.

Well all, got the engine cover painted tonight and shoved back in the truck (after dark).

Here be the story:

So I had the cover out and all masked up, ready to be painted. As she looked:




I checked the directions on the primer and spray paint and noticed the clear instructions:

"Use in an open air and well ventilated area, like an open garage."

"Ok" I asked my brain, "Can we do it in a closed air, poorly ventilated area like the apartment bathroom?"

"I don't see why not." my brain replied. So I got about setting up a painting area in the ol' commode:




Primed it....



Got a few coats on, and voila! 45 minutes and 5 to 10,000,000 dead brain cells later I emerged from the WC, light headed and victorious, clutching my newly painted engine cover like a small child who had just received a Nintendo 64 for Christmas.



I promptly took it out into the dark evening and set it on the hood to take bad pictures with a lot of enthusiasm. It's hard to tell, but the color match is almost perfect:



And a few more looks of it back in the bay:








Daytime shots:

It's a little easier to see the shade difference between the paint on the cover and the truck in these daylight shots, but it's still damn close. You can also see some mottling of the paint. I've considered re-masking and adding another coat, but I wonder if it'd get darker still and start to look further from speedway blue. I've decided I'm willing to live with it since it's under the hood most of the time and less noticeable without flash photography.







Feedback welcome!

 

good job man.....looks kickass. brain cells......what the hell are those anyway?

 

Very nice...

 

Painted engine cover > brain cells anyway

 

what paint color did you use? generic wal-mart blue or was that some kind of duplicolor match to toyota speedway blue? also did you use clear over it?

 

I got lucky. Went to Lowe's and took what they had. Primed with RustOleum Professional Primer and the paint was Rustoleum Metallic with the cap color that most closely matched my truck.

Just happened to turn out really really well. It's maybe one shade darker than my actual truck, but a caranuba wax job would match em up perfectly. Unless you're looking for it, you can't tell the difference.

No clear cover, just the primer and paint.

I'll get some daylight pictures tomorrow.

 

nice job!

 

I went through the same childish excitment when I finally unmasked my engine cover. The wife was not nearly as impressed as I was. She just rolled her eyes

Don't worry, the excitement subsides when you don't open your hood for another month or more. But when you do...BAMM - she's purrrrdy!

 

Looks good

 

Love it!

 

wow that looks really good man. nice job

 

preeeetttyyyy!

 

My one recommendation to anyone planning on doing this is take plenty of time when masking the cover. Getting masking tape to fit the curves of the design properly takes a lot of patience, a little luck, and some deft fingerwork.

The nice thing about masking tape is it's a bit flexible, and so is its adhesive, so you can apply it and then "nudge" it 1-2mm in various directions...almost like molding a very thin layer of clay.

It took quite a while (roughly two hours) to mask it down to the detailed corners, but I'm glad I put in the extra time. I don't have any "hatching" around the edges where straight lines were pieced together, nor any notches in straight areas where different sections of tape were uneven. It looks *very* close to being a factory job.

If you're gonna take the time to do it...might as well do it right.

 

Looks nice man.


Sorry to ruin your fun and all (mine as well) but it still gets dirty. I looked at mine the other day for the first time in a while. I almost cried.

 

Just hit it with some compressed air every couple weeks when you wash it. That should do the job. Maybe a quick rinse every now and again too.

 

Yeah. I usually take mine off and just hand wash it. Well, I do now. Then I didn't. I have a couple things painted. That one thing (engine cover) just looked out of place by itself.

 

Looks AWESOME! Where did you get that paint?

 

Lowes. Scroll up and read.

I have some left over, could even supply you with batch number, pictures, etc. if you want.

The cap looks darker than the SWB paint, but it worked out. It was the only blue Rustoleum spray paint they had in stock with a metallic finish.

 

Ah, missed that post. Yeah, I'd appreciate a batch #.

 

good JOB..

What kind of paper did you used for mask.