painting engine cover/strut brace
 

I was pretty bored and wanted to see how it would look. I think it turned out really well. If no has done this yet then here some pics and instructoins. Its pretty easy just time consuming:

Brace: 14MM
Cover: 10MM

Picture 1: before shot.

Picture 2: Remove bolts on each side of strut brace.

Picture 3: remove rumber seal at the back of engine bay. it just pops off

picture 4: where my hand was in pic 4, there is a plastice piece behind it that pops off. be carefull not to break anything, its only plastic.

Picture 5: remove the 2 bolts under the plastic piece that you just removed.

Picture 8: Before you ever do any painting, you should clean ALL surfaces first. tape off or cover everything you dont intend to paint. i used grey tape and masking tape. both of them stuck very poorly to the plastic. so if you have a better method use it.
to cover the rubber pieces inside where the bolts that mount the the cover down, cut out a piece of tape the size of a nickel. just get a nickel, put tape on it and cut. i used the grey tape. After that paint the desired color.

Picture 14: sand down the brace, prime then paint. see, not hard at all just takes a while because of the dry of the paint.

Last coupld of pics are just the finnished product :tup:

EASY DIY enjoy.

P.S. how do you make the pictures pop up big without it beging an attachment??

Looks good. I plan to do this except pearl white to match the exterior of the car.....The only thing I have thought would be a problem is the engine temperatures cause the paid to fade/peel....

thank you. someone asked me y i wasnt doing white. it just that i didnt want to have to clean grease off of white. i already have to maintain a white car. I was thinking the same thing about the temp issue. but is still did it hoping it doesnt become an issue.

Good write up!

ive had great luck with duplicolor engine enamel paint. :) no peeling, cracking, and they are extremely strong to weather too.

Thank you

Looks good, excellent write up!

Thank you. :tup: i appriciate the compliments.

looks good!

What type of paint did u use to paint the engine bay and strut brace? Nicely done

I used Krylon Fusion. Before painting the strut I primed it. I have no bubbling or peeling of the paint:tup:

Looks good. I like the blue on white.

looks nice!!!

but how much did you have to 'sand down the brace' exactly???

Use a rough grade of sand paper to get passed the factory paint and it shouldn't take too long. use a smaller grit sand paper to smooth out the surface before priming.

Looks great. Really thinking about doing this to mine. Good write up.

I just installed my HPS tubes and removed the strut brace to make things easier.
Does anyone know the proper torque rating for the 14mm bolts that hold on the strut brace? I looked around but couldn't find anything and thought destinyZ might know.

no torque spec is required for something like this.

After you re-install, go back around and ensure that all the nuts and bolts are fully tightend.

Looks great think I'm going to do mine during the winter =))

More pics of the cover?

I painted mine body color after sadding on the Motordyne M370 intake manifold to reduce the amount of black in there.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1333499824

Especially if you note a colored paint mark on a fastener, that is a mark by a QA rep that witnessed the torque during manufacturing. There is a torque spec on those fasteners and it is 38 ft.lbs.

All the specs can be found on a $20-$25 cd you can purchase on ebay Nissan 370Z Workshop Manual.

Thanks
 

Thanks for the info! If a novice like me can do this...

What is the name of that blue you used?

just powder coated mine..and k&n pipes along with my amp cover! love it...will post pics after install. still need to paint cover. failed horribly with plasti dip...so attempt #2 coming up. Ahhh the life of a noob 370 owner! lol

I did this a while back. Purple for me though. I used simple rustoleum on mine and have had no problems. Did the brake/battery doors, g'3s, and OCC's also, but the G3 and OCC got high heat metallic purple not rustoleum. Now I'm just waitin for the magnabraid to come in so I can cover up my ground kit wires with them. Eventually I'd like to get some welding done on my strut bar and re painted, but that is a ways off for now.

How long do you have to wait for the paint to dry on every coat? Also, how long do you have to wait before you can put it back into your car and drive?

For rustoleum there is only 1 coat for me. Still holding up fine to the heat. I broke down and did the engine cover too. Still no issues what so ever.

Powder coated brace to match body color.
Work done by Anocoat Powder in San Diego. I was very pleased with the result. Good deep shine (more paintwork to polish:rolleyes:).

I used plastidip in case I want to change colors down the road... Been a week and it's holding up great.

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What did you use to prime it. or did you even prime it.

Hey what kind of sand paper do you use to sand the strut bar?