Making everything look better under the hood?

[Kerpal]

I was wondering what you guys have done to your underhood areas to make them look a bit better than stock without spending a lot of money or taking anything major apart. My GT isn't on the road right now, so I've been doing some minor projects while it sits in the garage.

When I bought it all the aluminum parts under the hood were oxidized, and the unpainted steel parts had a good layer of rust on them. I already hit every aluminum part I could acess with a wire wheel and am liking the satin finish it gave vs. putting in the time to mirror polish everything... I just need to get a smaller wheel for my dremel so I can get the detail areas. I figure I'll just sand and paint the rusted steel bits with some gloss black.

I'm thinking I might paint my stock intake black as well just to be a little different, I don't really want to polish it since I'll just end up upgrading it eventually... I'd love to hide all the wiring under the hood, but that seems like way more work than I want to get into right now. I'm also drooling over the March pulleys and brackets, but they're a lot more money than I want to spend on something that isn't going to make my car perform better.

So, besides an obsessive detailing, which I'll be doing tomorrow, any other ideas what I can do to make things look a bit better in there?

 

[bmorrisj]

simple green and a pressure washer....cover up important stuff tho....

 

[HISSIN50]

a blower always makes things look more peachy.

 

[jd351]

HISSING50- That's just cruel punishment, but I guess you could have made it worse and said a Polished blower, a polished spider intake, or maybe a turbo set-up... ha,ha.

Yeah Kerpal, I am looking to do some kind of clean up under the hood as the 392 goes in this winter, but have not made up my mind if I want to hide the wires or not (lots of work). Have decided to paint engine bay semi-gloss black though. I have seen it on a few cars now and like it real well. Kind of retro, but makes things look cleaner IMO, also makes engine stand out more. Funny thing is, my friend just did his '68 engine compartment in body color, it looks really cool, go figure?

 

[HISSIN50]

JD, i could not resist. you did have to one up me - polished would have been better.

i like your underhood color choice. a good friend has a '67 FB (428CJ). underhood is meticulous. the car is white and the engine compartment is gloss black (most ancillary stuff is hidden) - it looks sweet! as you said, it really makes the polished and chrome stuff (and anodized for that matter) really stand out (more so than body color would, in his case).

:OT: i had not really noticed you until a few days ago - im quite impressed with what you've got to say. how is Everett these days? i played some baseball up there way back (grew up in Woodinville).

other guys, sorry to have gotten so far off the beaten path with my posts.

 

[jd351]

Way off subject, sorry. Will PM in future.

Wow, Woodinville... so did I. I graduated in '87 from Woodinville HS. Mostly lived in Juanita-Bothell or Woodinville area growing up. Moved to Everett after HS, and just moved to my first house in Arlington... Guess I should change that in my profile.

Yeah, I have not been on Stangnet much over the last year or so, but have seen your posts before. Appear to have a lot of knowlege yourself. Anyway, before I highjack this thread, I have just started work back up on one of my '90 Stangs and needed a little help with a brake problem... ended up addicted to this place again. See you around.

 

[Robert_68]

Some nice wire managment would make the engine bay look nice.