Happy forth of July everyone I have a quick question when painting the engine bay do I have to use a promoter spray cause its plastic or can I just clean and use the paint I'm going to use

 

Do you mean that you want to paint the fender liners?

- Eric

 

yeah the fender liners and the firwall

 

so would i have to use anything like that ??

 

I would imagine so, with the plastic fender liners, though I really can't say with authority, as I don't know anyone who's done it.

Why would you want to paint the fender liners?

- Eric

 

Try shining them up with a light buffing with fine steel wool or "non-scratch" scotchbrite - it did wonders on mine, even removing old paint overspray.
Paint will be easy to damage here so I do not recommend it.

If you do go with painting them, you would need to probably sand them to get a rough surface for the paint to grip into. Then you would need to choose a paint and follow it's recommendations. The SEM plastic paints may not hold up well to grease and oil and other hazards under the hood, even with the promoter.

Firewall is metal, so regular painting methods will apply here.

Either place, a CLEAN, petroleum and dirt-free surface is important.

 

Okay so ive been cleanin the engine bay and it dose look like the previius owner painted the fender wells and I cleaned them up the original color is clean but the paint from the previous owner is peeling in a lot of places how should I remove it

 

i want to paint the fender liners cause they look really worn down and could use a fresh coat of paint to fressh things up when i drop the new 350 rocket in. it looks as if someone painted them in the past cuase theres peeling pain

 

So the real question is, How do I remove old paint from the fender liners?

I don't have a good answer, but I know that they are resistant to most solvents, so you might try some lacquer thinner on an inconspicuous area and see if it affects the surface or the paint. If it works, use it.

I would be cautions of chemical paint removers, as they might melt the fender liners.

- Eric

 

okay ya cuase when i was cleaning today the there is spots of paint and i was able to peel a very little off and the orginal color of the fender liners looked okay.. if i am able to remove the paint and clean them up and they still dont look good like faded in some spots or just old looking is it a bad idea to paint them?

 

I'm sure there is some chemical you can use to make the paint stick, but I have no idea what it is. If you just paint them, it will peel off, just like this paint is doing.

- Eric

 

thats true dang... so i cant make my fender liners look new then huh cause i wanted to make everthing look good when i put the new gold block in.. i guess its okay

 

You might want to try a heat gun on a low setting. I've had success with that in the past. Just make sure it doesn't get too hot.

 

They also make reproduction inner fender wells if you want to go that route but id start by stripping the paint and cleaning the old ones

 

Since some of the paint is already peeling, I would use a power washer on the fenderwells as you might be able to blast all of the paint off of them. And you'll give them a good cleaning at the same time. See how that works and then go from there.

 

I LIKE that idea.

Eliminates worries about chemicals / solvents damaging the plastic.

- Eric