1952-59 Ford Opinion

Alright guys I been going back and forth for about a month now. I trying to decide to what color do paint the motor. The car is going to be all black with chrome. I haven't decided if it's going to be gloss or flat black yet. I'm thinking either to have it all black with chrome valve covers & air cleaner, or painting it ford red with the same chrome accents.

 

red would be a good offset. Blacks ok but if theres any leaks it would be harder to see i would imagine & not to mention keeping it clean. Have you gave silver or gray a thought? that would like pretty cool against black w/ chrome and its not done to death like the red/blk combo.

 

Perhaps you could color-key the engine to the interior/trunk color. I think if it were my car, I'd go with either a turquoise and white or a salmon and white tuck and roll interior to go with your all-black exterior paint (shiny...please!). The engine block would then be either turquoise or salmon.

I like Chip Foose's idea of using the engine compartment as a "jewelry box" for the engine. In this concept the entire engine compartment is done in a semi-flat black with no bright geegaws to draw your eye. This brings all of your visual attention to the engine itself, which is brightly colored and/or highly detailed.

Back in my day it was very common to see a neatly laid out and nicely painted engine compartment, with a clean, painted engine...with a few bits of chrome if the budget permitted. The car itself might not be painted or newly upholstered, but the engine compartment was always first-cl***.

Grungy engines with sloppy wiring and stuff were frowned upon. Guys who took pride in their ride would never be caught with an unkempt engine compartment.



This might be considered old-fashioned today, but I still do it that way. ^^^^ Stubborn, I guess...

 

I think a black engine would just be too much black . I like the Ford red idea . You could also paint the firewall white to off set the engine bay colors . How about painting the engine bay Ford dark blue or Ford light blue with the engine Ford red . That would be really nice too .

Jim