I am finally finished, well I will never be finished but done with everything I wanted do do this winter.
I stripped down the engine compartment down to bare metal with PeelAway 7 and an air powered wire brush, primed and painted with Eastwood Underhood Black. Also did the same thing with the wheel wells.
I replaced my valve covers and replaced a few other parts.
Then I tackled the undercarriage, now that was fun! I striiped it down and painted with red oxide primer. Turned out great. I also repainted the underside of the hood with the body color, it was black. Then I repainted the trunk and replaced the mat. Now I just can not wait until spring!
Randy
1968 Coupe
C Code
Link to my pictures

 

Looks very nice. Can't wait till mine looks that good.
How long did it take you to strip the engine bay, and what is PeelAway 7?

Like I said though looks sharp.

 

Those are very nice man Your doing a great job. Hope mine looks that good someday.

 

Thank you, it took about a month (weekends and weeknights) to strip the paint from the bay. PeelAway 7 is a enviromental friendly paint remover. You just spread it on and apply paper on top, let it sit for 24-48 hours and then scrap off. It took about 80% of the paint off, I removed the rest with a wire brush.
Peel Away 7

 

environmentally friendly paint remover? I didn't know that such a thing existed!

 

Looks great!

 

WOW! Looks very nice........great job

 

 

Randy,

Great looking car! Thanks for the tip on the PeelAway 7. I might give that a try. I used a heavy chemical stripper on my last Mustang, and man was that stuff toxic. This looks like a good alternative for under the hood of my car. I have the drivetrain, trim, interior and glass removed and it is pretty much ready for paint. I have been debating on whether or not to media blast the engine compartment/suspension area. That would involve having to trailer it to another location. I am afraid if I don't, I will end up with a substandard paint job under the hood. If I do the engine compartment myself, I know it will be done right. That way I can leave the paint and body work to the pros.
Craig

PS - Did you notice a performance gain with the Edelbrock products you put on the motor? My engine is freshly rebuilt, and I am trying to decide if I should go with the original 2BBL setup (rebuilt from Pony Carbs), or if I should go the Edelbrock route.

 

looks great B)

 

Randy,

Great looking car! Thanks for the tip on the PeelAway 7. I might give that a try. I used a heavy chemical stripper on my last Mustang, and man was that stuff toxic. This looks like a good alternative for under the hood of my car. I have the drivetrain, trim, interior and glass removed and it is pretty much ready for paint. I have been debating on whether or not to media blast the engine compartment/suspension area. That would involve having to trailer it to another location. I am afraid if I don't, I will end up with a substandard paint job under the hood. If I do the engine compartment myself, I know it will be done right. That way I can leave the paint and body work to the pros.
Craig

PS - Did you notice a performance gain with the Edelbrock products you put on the motor? My engine is freshly rebuilt, and I am trying to decide if I should go with the original 2BBL setup (rebuilt from Pony Carbs), or if I should go the Edelbrock route.
[/b][/quote]

Craig,
PeelAway7 was easy to use and does not drive you out of the garage because of the smell. It actually has a pleasant smell, well as much as a paint stripper can have. It has the consistence of mayonnaise, you just spread it on with a paint brush. Now it is messy to take off but that is what the paper is for, it takes much of the paint with it when you peel away the paper. It works great on undercoating! As you can see I did this with the engine still in the car, was not too hard but it would have been easier with it out. Could not have done it with a 428! Just make sure you get all the chemical off before you paint. It dries white so it is easy to see.

As for my Edelbrock setup, I noticed a HUGE increase in performance! I installed a Performer intake which I painted blue so it would look stock. A 500cfm edelbrock carb, a mild cam and dual flowmaster exhaust, it all woke up the 289. I do have stock manifolds which I am sure decreases the performance though.
Randy

 

Craig,
PeelAway7 was easy to use and does not drive you out of the garage because of the smell. It actually has a pleasant smell, well as much as a paint stripper can have. It has the consistence of mayonnaise, you just spread it on with a paint brush. Now it is messy to take off but that is what the paper is for, it takes much of the paint with it when you peel away the paper. It works great on undercoating! As you can see I did this with the engine still in the car, was not too hard but it would have been easier with it out. Could not have done it with a 428! Just make sure you get all the chemical off before you paint. It dries white so it is easy to see.

As for my Edelbrock setup, I noticed a HUGE increase in performance! I installed a Performer intake which I painted blue so it would look stock. A 500cfm edelbrock carb, a mild cam and dual flowmaster exhaust, it all woke up the 289. I do have stock manifolds which I am sure decreases the performance though.
Randy
[/b][/quote]

Randy,

Great tips. Did you paint your engine compartment with a rattle can, or a spray gun? It turned out very nice, just the results I am looking for.

Fortunately for me, my car was never undercoated, and lived a sheltered life in Los Angeles & Phoenix. I have detailed the undercarrage from the firewall back, and all it really required was Simple Green and plastic brushes. I was left with the original red oxide running the length of the car (it's faded to a lite pink in the rear quarters). It is definitely something you don't see everyday, and when my car goes in for paint next month, I plan on taking extra care to preserve it.

I think I will try the Edelbrock setup you described. This is my fourth old Mustang, and all of them have been bone stock. When I rebuilt my motor last summer, I had a mild cam put in, and have already purchased a set of Hipo exhaust manifolds. I keep thinking it would be a shame to put the two barrel back on, and am very curious as to how it would perform with these upgrades. Painting your intake to match is a stealth choice as well. I doubt many people pick up on it.
Craig

 

Randy,

Great tips. Did you paint your engine compartment with a rattle can, or a spray gun? It turned out very nice, just the results I am looking for.

Fortunately for me, my car was never undercoated, and lived a sheltered life in Los Angeles & Phoenix. I have detailed the undercarrage from the firewall back, and all it really required was Simple Green and plastic brushes. I was left with the original red oxide running the length of the car (it's faded to a lite pink in the rear quarters). It is definitely something you don't see everyday, and when my car goes in for paint next month, I plan on taking extra care to preserve it.

I think I will try the Edelbrock setup you described. This is my fourth old Mustang, and all of them have been bone stock. When I rebuilt my motor last summer, I had a mild cam put in, and have already purchased a set of Hipo exhaust manifolds. I keep thinking it would be a shame to put the two barrel back on, and am very curious as to how it would perform with these upgrades. Painting your intake to match is a stealth choice as well. I doubt many people pick up on it.
Craig
[/b][/quote]

Craig,
My car is from Arizona also. When I was stripping and cleaning up the undercarriage there were places where the red oxide primer was still there, faded though. Denatured Alcohol works great for cleaning. I used a rattle can to paint the engine, I touch it up every year because it does fade a bit. I used Duplicolor Old Ford Blue. Yes very few people pick up that it is an edelbrock intake.
I was thinking about the same thing about the hipo manifolds, I just might get a pair.
Goodluck!
Randy

 

Craig,
My car is from Arizona also. When I was stripping and cleaning up the undercarriage there were places where the red oxide primer was still there, faded though. Denatured Alcohol works great for cleaning. I used a rattle can to paint the engine, I touch it up every year because it does fade a bit. I used Duplicolor Old Ford Blue. Yes very few people pick up that it is an edelbrock intake.
I was thinking about the same thing about the hipo manifolds, I just might get a pair.
Goodluck!
Randy
[/b][/quote]

Did you have to do anything special in the way of primer to paint the intake? I have never painted engine parts before, so I am not up to speed on if I need to do any special for painting aluminum. My engine builder painted everything Ford Blue and gave me a couple of extra cans that I can use for the intake.

I got my manifolds off of Ebay. They are new repos, and I think I paid $195 for them. The guy who sold them to me is a regular on Ebay, and is located in La Habra CA.

I can't wait to get my car back together. I got another quote yesterday for painting the body & engine compartment. It came back at between $4K & $6K to do what I want. I think that is a little high considering I have removed everything off of the car (drivetrain and glass included), and there is not a dent on it. This shop sounded like they couldn't handle another car right now anyway. I guess I will keep looking. :bang:
Craig

 

Criag,
I did not prime the intake. I just cleaned it real good with brake cleaner. I touch up the engine every year with new paint.
Actually that price is not too bad as long as they use good quality paint and do a good job. I have a friend who had his '73 vert painted and it was stripped down, media blasted before it went to paint and it was over $6000
Good luck,
Randy