I'm getting ready to pull the engine out of my wife's 1971 R/T Challenger to install another.
Her car was restored by her late father in the mid 80's and the body and paint still look beautiful.
Unfortunately like many 80's restos the engine compartment was painted black out of a spray can.
I want to have the engine compartment's black paint stripped and painted plum crazy like the rest of the car while the engine is out.
I've called a few body and restoration shops and they seem a little hesitant to take this job on.
I'll have the engine out, the front grill and headlight doors out and I can even remove some of the stuff inside on the engine compartment but I would like it blasted and repainted without damaging the rest of the car's nice exterior paint.
Is doing this that difficult of a job?
Am I missing something?
I'm not looking for a concourse show paint job, just make it look decent so we can open the hood at the car shows.
I even have an enclosed trailer I could deliver the car to a place.
If anyone knows a place near N.E. Ohio please feel free to let me know.

Very easy task. just do it yourself. Take a lot of before pictures and label everything coming off.Rent sand blaster and make sure you cover everything up three times for safety, you can sand most of the areas down yourself before the blaster. Practice with a new type smaller spray gun and have at it. You can rent everything for that job easliy. then you have the satisfaction of completing the car for your wifr and her late Father.

There's a guy here in Wooster that is a paint/body guy. Retired now, he owns his own shop. He's really busy as he's a one man show. He's a Mopar guy though for sure. He has 2 69RR's. He did the engine bay on mine a year ago. Looks great. Let me know if you need any other info. I don't know if he has the time to take another project on, but besides my uncle, he's the only other guy I trust to touch my RR.

PM sent
Thanks.

The problem with sandblasting on a finished car is that the sand goes everywhere. I don't like sandblasting unless it's a bare shell. I always hand sand engine compartments and it's a time consuming job, that's probably why the production shops don't want to touch it.
The other thing is contamination. I wipe the engine compartment down about 3 times with wax and grease remover before I start sanding then another 2 times after it's sanded, there's a lot of time involved.

Sheldon

I'm doing mine now by myself. I would'nt use the sandblast or media beacuse of the reasons stated, you'll never get all the media out of the little crooks and crevices. I sanded mine by hand and used a small angled DA sander.

Well when I first got into the hobby, I did my engine compartment when my engine was out. It is a piece of cake. I think you could easily do it in a weekend or two. I did most of it with hand sanding and a small orbital sander. Worked pretty good. Masked everything off. I went to the local paint store and had them color match the paint for me then put the matched paint in spray cans for me. It is high quality paint with an easy way for the novice to apply it. However, if you want to have it soda blasted, I know a couple outfits here will actually come to your house and blast it there in the drive way. It is enviromentally friendly and the soda disappears with a quick wash up. However, most will have a facility to go to also. I was quoted $750 for the whole car, so I would expect the engine bay would probably be a couple hundred bucks and leaves the metal very smooth. It won't harm glass and if you protect everything else you will probably be just fine. I would go the DYI route, but sometimes the checkbook route is good too.

How big a hurry are you in? I may be able to do that job in september.

by the way, plum crazy is a tough color to match, especially since the metallics have changed so much in the last few years. Anything you know about the paint itself will help whoever is doing the job. paint brand, type, and color of primer/sealer underneath

I would guess that it's too small of a job and most resto type shops won't want to do such a small job, since it's only a day or 2 worth of work for them.

and "new body shops" prefer insurance work.

I won't promise anything, but give Pat Aldrich a call @ 937 222 3633 tell him that Tom Filbert told you to call.

he does restoration work only, and does not mind taking on small projects. however, when I left him back in December, he was very busy and low on manpower so he might be backed up. small company, excellent customer service and communication, and he treats every car like it's his own. Several times he made me do something over because he wasn't happy with the quality of the work, and he did NOT charge the customer for the extra time. I know because I saw the time sheets--always made me feel like a scumbag, documenting that I worked 40 hours but he only billed 25-30 to the customer.

they are located in Dayton OH, and although he specializes in Packards, when I left he had taken on 2 Thunderbirds, and an Olds Starfire 'vert, and he expressed a desire to get into other markets.

...face it, when you specialize in 55/56 Packard Carribean Convertibles, and they only made 500 or so each year...that's a pretty small market!

anyway, give him a call, I have no doubt that he could do a top quality job at a fair price for you. Like I said tell him I sent you.

note: I used to work there as a general mechanic for him until I decided that I wasn't using my skills and training to it's fullest and I left to pursue a different career path, and there were no hard feelings between us, and we parted on good terms.

I think the rattle can could come off easily. Was there any sanding before the rattle bomb went on? I'd never blast with a project like this. I'd grease remove with Gunk, then trisodium phosphate. Then jitterbug with Scotchbrite and Scotchbrite wheel on a drill motor for the nooks. Either this takes off the black, or if not, then it's sticking well and shouldn't cause a problem. Then wash the engine compartment with tsp and a Scotchbrite again, or use something called Ting, which is available at autobody paint supply shops. With the car prepped like this, you should be able to find someone to put the paint on.

I would sand it down by hand or use the 3M stripping discs and take it to bare metal and hand sand the rest.

Get all the rattle can paint off too.

Plan to do it in 2 months working weekends. I wouldn't blast the enginge compartment. The first thing I did was power wash the the hell out of the engine compartment. Get all the grease and oil out. Unbolt whatever needs unbolting and power wash it again. Then gring any rust out of the metal. Sand and strip the paint out to bare metal. Power wash it again then blow out the dirt etc with air. Mask everything off good prime paint and let it dry. My local Napa mixed up single stage paint in a spray bomb for $8 a can minimum 4 cans. That's how i did my dart and I was happy.

I've done it like that, not that difficult, but time consuming. As mentioned by others, not a good idea to blast on an assembled car. I used paint stripper, of course first completely covered the exterior, and taped it off. Remove as many parts as possible from the engine compartment. After stripping clean everything very well.

All of the things listed in this thread show you why a shop doesn't want to do this job. WAY time consuming, run the risk of messing up existing paint, plus very difficult to match your existing paint and keep the customer happy.
Do it yourself that way you can put in time for the small details that no one else will do. You will be happy with the results.

Don't use sand because the car is together. I'm a sand blast expert.
Use a heated pressure washer, it'll clean everything up real good without hurting anything. If you can't get heat use a cold water one. Degreaser and a pressure washer, you can prep it for paint in a couple hours. I've done it many times with cars and trucks. Good luck,

I wish I had those two purple beasts in my garage!
Too bad you live in the NE,I'd help you. This is where it;s happening,SW corner of Ohio.

Thanks for all the info and advice guys.
Today was a busy car working day which hasn't happend in a long time.
I've got the scratched and bloody knuckles to prove it.
I have a very good bodyman that's going to be looking at the car real soon.
I started disassembling the wife's Challenger and hope to have the engine out by next week. I'm starting to think it might be best to pull the front fenders off the car to avoid damaging them. I just got home from picking up my new (to me) enclosed trailer so I now have a way of transporting the car(s) anywhere I need to take them

Just backed it in right at sunset.