dv3

what the best way to smooth out the engine bay and cover all the holes...

...i know there are threads on this somewhere but search keeps telling me there is no record on everything i search for

thanks

TRexGAWD

A lot of f***ing work. It takes time but assuming you have the motor pulled already I like to start from one side and take pieces off one at a time so I can easily remember where everything goes. It takes a little longer but it help when putting everything back together. As far as products go there's all sorts of things people use. I'm a lttle old fasioned and still like to use lead filling and sand it down real smooth then use a semi abrasive paint for that rough flat look.

dv3

i have have no exlerience using lead but how would you go about filling the big holes evrywhere with lead .....anf isnt lead really heavy

LesteR723

the most professional way to do this is to pull the motor sand down around the holes you want to fill, trim down a piece of metal matching the size of the hole and weld it on it. you can use a pin on the center of the patch metal to hold it in place. it is a lot of f**kign work

TRexGAWD

A joke??? No, not at all. Have you ever restored any cars? Real restorations, cars that have half the body missing sitting on a bare frame. Lead solder was the preffered method of choice years ago and is still used to this day by old school restorers. It has more strength then ****ty plastic fillers and IMO looks thousands of times better. It's a skill that you must learn though, much like welding or any other kind of metal work. We would use lead solder to replace holes that we had to cut out because of cancer or cracks in body panels, housings, anything that couldn't be replaced. Although in todays world it's pretty much impractical and useless on the body of most cars now that everything is made out of damn plastic. In can still be used on the engine bay rather easily though, It works just like putty and you can fill large holes with it.

mjr46

a mig welder is the quickest and most practical way and figure on stripping out everything in the engine bay if you want it done right and you'll have to fab some metal panelind in a few places to box front rails

dv3

i like these ideas ...is there a step by step for dummies somewhere on how to do any of these?

....any thoughts on fiberglass?

ewgoetz

Fiber glass would add more weight than you want and I think It would crack easier.

ALMOST STOCK

Myquestion is to all those who have said it's a F++### lot of work ... mind post those pictures to show all of us that work you've done, because I never found that to be true.
Oh sure it might be work .......but it definitely isn't a lot of FUc### a lot of work!

I did my engine bay 8 yrs ago when that was almost heard of and very few people if any did it (2 that I know of) but I decided to do mine with a MIG welder to fill in the holes , all metal (not bondo) to fill in any slight imperfections andEvercoatfinishing puttyto fill any pin holes left from the all metal.
This is something I've passed along to others for over 7+ years if you're interested dv3/
http://www.netsnapshot.com/pcw/build...1924&KEY=3
along with this.

WELDING AND PAINTING THE ENGINE BAY



I'm not sure it’s the proper way to fill the holes in the engine bay but its what worked for me 8 yrs ago when I did mine and I know many morewho have followed what I did simply because they asked me how I did mine.

Pull the engine.
Clean and degrease the entire engine bay.
Take a wire wheel on an electric drill and clean all the old paint off around near the hole you’re going to weld up.

Get yourself some 22 ga metal (20 ga metal is easier to find and will work also) to make some patch pieces just slightly smaller as the same diameter of the hole your weld up. Weld the patch piece into place. Weld and fill any hole larger than a dime in that manner (dime size and smaller hole you can weld closed by making a few passes to fill those small holes).

Grind down all the welds then use a body filler (I used all-metal not bondo) to filled in any low spots in the engine bay due to either warped fenders, welding or grinding, spot welds, or any screw holes. When using any body filler always try keeping it to a minimum thickness by following instruction on the can or label. You’ll need to fill the low and uneven spots probably 2 or 3 times before you have enough buildup to sand the body filler smooth and flat. I used a long board and 4” sanding block to make mine as smooth and flat as I possibly could.
I found that if you buy the sand paper sheets for the body filler from any Auto Supply paint store your time spent sanding will be cut in half versus getting sheets of wet-dri course sand paper from your local hardware store, but that’s just me.
At this time you’ll also need to scuff the entire engine bay with a medium scuffing pad, and then clean the engine bay of any dust by either air or tack cloth.

Next prime:
Once the primer is dry you’ll need to sand the entire engine bay with 360 grit wet-dri sandpaper. After that you’ll need to remove any primer dust from sanding by either air or a tack rag.
Next apply finishing putty such as (Evercoat Glaze Coat) to fill in any small pin holes that the body filler or primer did not fill in. Sand the finishing putty with 360 or 400 grit wet-dri sandpaper, at this time if you see and small pin holes or recessed areas that you may have missed earlier or that didn’t fill properly fill with the finishing putty one more time.
Remove any finishing putty sanding dust with air and while doing that making sure at this time that you have completely eliminated all dust and any debris that could fly up during painting process. Last and final time tack rag the whole engine bay out, and now your ready to paint.

white93pony

mig welder, bondo and a lot of f*****g time! GL the results are well worth it!