Engine compartment black paint

I can't answer intelligently, but I use Plasticote Universal Black for these items, and have been very satisfied with the sheen and durability so far. I know that doesn't answer your question, but maybe you haven't tried this paint yet?

After stripping and prepping my engine compartment, I sprayed it with Engine Compartment Black from The Eastwood Company. It thinned easily and went on great. Over 15 years later it still looks new. The sheen is perfect and if you like I can send you photos.

Cheers.

Yes the underhood black is perfect and another great one is the Satin black from Rustoleum.I've used both and worked out nice!

I think there are two different areas referenced here. One is the compartment, and one is the black accessory pieces and such. I was speaking earlier of the brackets, pulleys and fan.

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...... I know we all have out favorite mixture but do we have a clue as to what Ford used for this? ........

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Please remember that many of these pieces were not painted by Ford or if painted by Ford, painted at dozens of distant locations using different products and mixtures. Also the amount of gloss was also effected by the painting process (sprayed or dipped) so most of the bolt on items should look different from the engine compartment walls and each other.

One product does not fit all IMHO

My body man is supposed to be putting together a black "color wheel" for me with varying shades of black. I can then use this to compare original parts as they are cleaned to try and get an idea of what would be a close replication. As Jeff says, nothing is really definite, but we do see patterns after observing original cars. For instance, we know the engine bay braces on '65 convertibles were painted with black lacquer paint which isn't very resilient! Something else to consider is that Ford rarely, if ever, used primer on parts. Instead they were usually zinc plated or left bare metal before paint. This could also have an effect on the final surface texture and gloss of painted parts.

We saw a great example of an unrestored 65 GT last weekend at Mustang's Plus and the level of gloss was generally higher than that of most restorations. It also had a lot more runs and imperfections than most restorers would want to have in their paint jobs.

Most bolt on painted black components were E-Coated Ford paint spec. ESE-M2P10-A. Some pulleys call for a black rubber resin coating ESE-M99J252-A, no paint/coating in the belt grooves.

try Krylon #1613 satin black for the eng bay. It is spot on and very easy to touch up after you bang that eng into it. Runs etc can be easily applied. I like the do it yourself style and am always satisfied with coverage and sheen.

pulleys and such I try to use Plasticoat semi-gloss and brackets and braces that were dipped originally a quality gloss black applied heavy looks outstanding.

This has worked for me. Goldy

I don't know if that type of paint is available over the counter. To achieve the OE look you will have to find a company in your area that can electrocoat/E-Coat automotive parts. Ford & all the others still have parts E-Coated for corrosion protection. Google the spec, & E-Coat for more information.

Automotive finishing materials have changed over the years due to environmental & health concerns. I believe e-coat paint is now a water borne material.

The E-Coat process has been around for many years.

I don't know what paint was used for the engine compartment. I suggest having an original car scanned at your local automotive paint store for the correct shade of black.

E-coat has been around since the 1930's:

http://www.clearclad.com/clearclad_resources/ecoat.htm

It would be interesting to get a list together of parts that may have been originally e-coated.

I have Access to Ecoat. aslong as the Manufacturing Facility Stays in Business, Actually its pretty cheap, you can get bulk parts ecoated aslong as their clean of rust for about 150 bucks, it doesn't matter how many pounds you bring, this includes top frames, pully's bumper brackets etc. I gave some little items to ppg and they confirmed they were ecoat. just reciently I got an nos oil filler cap, and its ecoat. Convertible top Frames work great durring ecoating. Somehow their bushings survive 400 degreas. if you run a seat track through the coat process with out taking the track apart the bushing melt. so Top Frames must have been assembled before plating as the bushings survive. I have been ecoating stuff for along time. On the engine compartment like some of the underside of mustangs it could of been hot wax. as you can sometimes notice on undrestored cars you can scrape the bottom of the floor pan with your finger and its somewhat not durabale or if you remove the front sway bar and the original paint is still their its easy to scrap. Ford has used hot wax since the model t

I think we're probably splitting hairs here as the exact specification could not have been applied perfectly on every car. Based on original cars I've seen, the gloss of the engine bay varied throughout a production year and assembly plant. Some more shiny than others. There could be many factors that have an effect on the final coating appearance, such as:

-The amount of paint applied (wet or dry coat)

-Consistency of materials used from the supplier

-The catalyst/reducer mixture at the time the paint was sprayed

-The temperature at which the paint was applied

-Contaminants in the air line (i.e. water)

-Spray gun condition

While there are a lot of things we can get a pretty good handle on, I'd say engine bay paint is one of those things that we just have to say "close enough" and move on.

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