Hey cruizin if that was a shot at me look closer. The torsion bars and connecting link are still wrapped in paper in the painted engine compartment picture. They are painted single stage pitch black under the paper. The K member is paint yellow and so is the engine block.

It is your car..paint it what ever color you want to.

My vote is car color...

Excuse me ? Thats right paint it body color the way the car was made. Bedliner, what are you building a car from the road warriors?

Nope, i would rattle can the whole car flat black primer, put some cop wheels on it, open headers, and a bull bar. Then it would be road warriors.

I have seen plenty of black engine bays before can't say its bad looking. I got the whole inside sanded down today. about 4 hours, the engine bay was a MESS!

Took some decent photos. Ill update this with photos and everything sometime this weekend. let you all see how it looks, and bash me!

Just wondering if anyone had gone through with painting their engine compartment with bedliner. The engine bay of my truck is an orangish red and with the engine out I'd planned on finding a similar shade to do a quick re paint, but the bedliner caught my attention. I believe I've seen a variety of bedliner colors. Hoping someone had some good results to share and hopefully I can find a color that will look good.

thanks
Corey

A 73 Dart is still a MOPAR and deserves a body color engine bay. To say that it will never be worth much isn't really accurate. Have you checked the prices of nice ones on ebay lately? Yes, the values have risen. Maybe you dont care about the factory correct aspect of car restoration. It is your car, but I am another one who thinks that black is hack. Fords and GM cars did the black engine bays. The bedliner coatings are worse. "Black is good for touch ups". THAT is a crock as well. Do a decent prep and paint and the finish will be more resistant to scratching and flaking off. Personally, I can only understand the alternative paint ideas if your car is a rusty old turd with a slant sick running on 3 holes, belching oil smoke from the 1 7/8 single exhaust pipe. That doesn't sound like you.

Value in a non-origial car has more to do with quality and eye appeal than with originality. Lets face it, there a customs out there that bring a lot of money. So to say the car will be worth more with the engine comp. done in "body color" is just not true.

Personally I'd stay away from the spatter. It just looks "cheap" in my opinion. I don't like the truck bed stuff as it would give me the impression there's something being hidden underneath. Black looks Chevyish.

I'm leaning towards a metallic charcoal or dark silver - something complimentary to the body color.

Pull the fenders and do the whole front end and you'll also solve the "blackout" issue behind the grill as well as the wheelwells!

Skip the bedliner and do it right. You're going through all that work so why kill it with a hack job?

Shoot it body color and it will look much better. Do the prep right and it'll be fairly impact resistant too.

"unless the car is black it will look like a chevy guy painted underhood."

I'm with upnover, but if your budget is limited then do the best you can and be proud.

Wow, this did bring a lot of responses. The way I see it is that, what makes "chevy guy" a "chevy guy" and a "ford guy" a "ford guy" is that they drive chevrolets and fords!

I really wasn't around when all of this came to be, and certainly wasn't around when they were new. Unless yall's cars are survivors capsulated in a barn somewhere for 40 years...none of your cars are "original".

And sure this 73 is going up a bit in value. But, I'm not real concerned with that right now. Honestly, it really won't ever be worth a lot. It's ALWAYS going to be eclipsed by mostly everything pre-72 when emissions didn't kill the motors.

I don't see how this is "hack". I stripped and sanded the paint to metal, removed EVERYTHING from the front end and painted it with bed-liner. I love how it looks. I also don't care if i get picked on for it. At the end of the day it still is a fast Mopar with a black engine bay. At the end of the day, it MY fast Mopar with a black engine bay.

When yall started doing this hobby, i bet non of you were even slightly interested in "correctness", I bet it was all about having a fast cool car.

So if ya don't have anything good to say, thats fine, say it anyways. Just don't expect me to care.

Yes paint it body color like the factory did. They look the best that way. Bedliner looks wicked hack.