What color to paint intake?

What color should I paint gt40 intake?

  • Black wrinkle finish

    Votes: 2 15.4%
  • Original silver

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • Dull aluminum color (looks almost like clean sand blasted aluminum)

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • other

    Votes: 1 7.7%

  • Total voters
    13

Decurion

Member
Sep 28, 2006
353
0
16
Livonia, MI
Ill be putting a gt40/explorer intake on my car in the near future, and since the original paint is beginning to peel and has turned a dull grey, I was just going to repaint it the original bright aluminum color. Until, that is, I thought about the valve covers Ill most likely use. Id like to use the Ford motorsport finned Cobra style covers. Would it be too much black if I painted the intake in a black wrinkle finish and accented the ribs like the valve covers? The engine compartment is black, valve covers black (but accented with the bare fins), and dark Ford blue engine.
If anyones done this or found a picture of someone who has, Id like to see it.
 
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I powdercoated mine. Turned out really nice. It does resist gas pretty well also. Lasts much longer than paint. I think it was $40.

What color, original silver/similar? I have to respectfully reject the vote for painting it blue. I found a picture of one partly painted body color which was sort of blue-green and it didnt look too good, to me at least.

So far only 2 people have actually cast a vote, both for black wrinkle.
 
Pretty big manifold!

It would seem to be a question of what components do you want to showcase in your engine compartment? That manifold is really big! So making it stand out with a bright color will really focus the attention away from everything else.
I voted for "other" because, I tried two of the colors (silver and Ford Blue) and the manifold just seemed to grow larger. It seemed even more out of place. I ended up with "Cast Iron" from Duplicolor to mute the manifold. Now the Cobra logo, and blue engine grab more of the attention.
The nice thing is, you can paint and strip the top pretty quickly, so it's easy to experiment with. The bottom is a bit more tedious to strip.
Here's a picture, that you *may* be able to "photochop" some color on.
Hope it helps. If you'd like a different angle, or closer/further away, let me know, and I can take a shot then PM it to you.
Good luck!
Front-end_shot.jpg
 
Hmm... All good points. Now that you mention it, I can see the wrinkle finish being a pain to clean. I just picked up another gt40 intake last night, so now I can paint one black, one silver, and if I dont like either I can just blast it and start over. Also for what its worth, I *think* the earlier gt40 intakes (cobra, 96 explorer) were painted bright silver, where the later explorer intakes were left natural as cast aluminum. I like the as cast look, but I can forget about ever trying to keep it clean.
 
Well it looks like Ive sort of had my mind made up for me. I took it to be blasted, and the guy asked if I wanted it painted. After showing me what it will look like, I agreed to it. Its a dull aluminum, matte finish. I dont really like glossy shiny bright "bling aluminum" on an intake, and I think this looks great. Pictures dont do much for it, because I think it just looks like any other silver, but compared to the other early gt40 intake I have which was originally painted bright silver, this is not as bright.
IMG_0008.jpg
 
That does look good. What type of paint did they use? I agree. I don't like ther bright polished aluminum stuff either. I like the matte finish like my Edelbrock intake or what the OEM EFI intakes look like. I like the colors that look more natural and not overdone.