Ok guess my 84 is under minor construction

[JoshT]

Well it's getting a freshly rebuilt motor, 1 1/4" front sway bar, 1" rear sway bar, and poly bushings in most of the front end. Just looking for an opinion here. I'm going to paint the motor while it's out obviously, but am also planning to paint the engine bay while in there. The engine bay will be satin black no changing my mind on that fact. Now my question concerns painting the frame. As of now I'm only planning to paint what is visible looking down on the engine, does this sound like a bad idea. I don't have time or space to tear the truck down to bare frame to paint the whole thing and I live on a dirt road so it's bout pointless at the moment, but I refuse to drop a nice clean engine back down in a dirty engine bay. As of now I'm only planning to paint the bay it's self, the portions of the frame visible from the top side of engine, radiator support (front and back), and possible the front frame horns. Does that sound stupid? It may be in a month or two I'll be removing the bed and can paint the back half then, but I'll only be able to do it a bits at a time. Oh and FWIW I'll be using Eastwood stuff to paint the bits of my frame and possibly engine bay.

 

[Natedog]

Sounds fine to me. Sometimes you can't do a 'perfect' job all at once...do what you described and you should be fine. FYI a black or dark colored engine bay sucks in my opinion because it is that much darker in there even with a drop light when you're wrenching on it later.

 

[JoshT]

I understand what you are saying about the light, but... My reason for going for a satin black isn't solely for looks, it seems to me a non gloss color will show up a leak better in the event one should happen. IMO a satin black looks better than any other non gloss color there is. On the other hand after I get the new motor installed I shouldn't be working under the hood for a long time (knock-on-wood), aside from regular maintenance that is.

If all goes as planed there will eventually be enough reflective surfaces under there to take care of spreading the light.

 

[JoshT]

Pics

This is the new motor when I brought it home.

Just some pics of a few of the new parts going in the truck, just the ones I had handy at the time of the picture.

I don't have any pics of the new motor going together as my camera died. When I get some pics of the motor or the other parts I'll post them up.

 

[Will]

Inside the turret of an M109 I was in once they used a pale green. They said the red hydraulic fluid showed up instantly when it leaked. I never actually operated one but there are maybe 2 guys that have and they might chime in. But I believe a pale green is the best at instantly spotting leaks if Uncle Sam says it is.

 

[JoshT]

Ok well regardless of the leak detection properties of black, I'm going to use it just cause I like the way it looks.

 

[JoshT]

Ok well call me crazy but I think I'm gonna say to heck with painting the engine bay, I just wanna drive this thing. I'm way tired of it just sitting, and don't really have the gumption to tackle that big of a project right now. I think I'm going to do just enough to control that rust which will be difficult to reach with the engine back in. Meaning I'll be painting the upper portion of the frame underneath the motor, and part of the core support where it's rusting pretty bad. Heck th reason for painting was to get rid of the dirt stains, and since (for the foreseeable future) I'm on dirt roads everyday that's pretty much pointless. Heck the thing isn't going to be a show truck, more of a semi daily driver. When I get the paint and body work done I might consider doing the engine bay and the rest of the frame at that time. Maybe then I'll also have a garage/shop to do the work in rather than doing it outside in the cold and rain.


My biggest problem is that I while to do this stuff, every time I go out to get started it seems like I'm getting nowhere and I've started a project that I can't finish, which in turn gets me discouraged and not want to work on it. I just tried to tackle to much as once, and since this is my first project of this type I need to step back and take smaller steps to get it done. To combat this I think the best thing I can do is get it put back together and enjoy it as quickly as I can. I'll get out and enjoy it for a while then start on a next step, which ever it may be.

 

[red85]

paint it. You will only want to yank the motor if you don't. Paint it black, blue, pale green or any colour you like, but paint it. Nicely painted engines look a little ghetto in a bay that wasn't given the same care.

 

[JoshT]

Then I'll tell you what, you can bring that truck of yours down here and paint it for me, that way I can drive yours around while you are doing the painting. You see the reasons I mentioned above aren't the only reasons I need to hurry up and get the 84 back together. My 99 is starting to exibit a few problems, but won't throw any codes (I've checked even though there is no light). These problems include put are probably not limited to hard starting, and poor idle. I need to put it on a diagnostic machine, and I've also got to get that cruse control TSB done on the truck, so I need the 84 to drive while it's in the shop.

If I were to start on restoring the engine bay now, at the rate I've been working on this thing it'd be months before it gets finished and that's just not an option. Yes I'm going to paint the engine, but if I don't paint it now it'll just be rusted later down the road. If I don't paint the engine bay now it's not gonna get much if any worse by the time I paint the truck. Besides I've been looking at a lot of hot rod pictures over the past week and they have about changed my mind on how to paint it. Seems about like everyone of them is painted body color in most of the engine bay, and it looks real good. Since I'll (hopefully) be getting the truck painted in a year or so, I may get it painted body color then. If I do decide to go with my original plan of black maybe as I redo wiring and things of the sort I will paint in those areas, and slowly get the whole thing done. That's the nice thing about the paint I was planning to use it can be done small sections as a time with no problems, and since I was gonna brush on there's no worry of over-spray.

Working on this truck is also starting to affect other aspects of my life as well. I should be saving money and looking for land to buy so I can build a shop (and house) to work on the vehicles in, instead I'm spending that time fretting over every little detail and getting nothing done, I've also been blowing my money on things that are very pointless. I should also really be starting back into school but if I were to do that I'd be messing up by grades due to being distracted by the truck.

As for the ghetto engine bay bit, I could really care less if it is. The only time the engine bay will be getting opened is when something needs fixing. Hopefully that won't be more than every 5000 miles for oil changes, which I do myself on this truck. As for what others think I don't care, all they need to see is the letters on my tailgate as I leave them in the dust.