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REFINISHING THE ENGINE BAY

STRIPPING THE UNDERCOATING FROM THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT

Story and photos by: Garth Rodericks

I like the look of the Pantera’s original engine bay sprayed with undercoating.  I found it to be problematic because the undercoating never looked clean, and it proved to be a magnet for dust.  Textured truck bedliner looks great and approximates the original appearance.

Many have chosen to refinish their engine compartment with a smooth glossy painted engine compartment which looks great on a show car, but in my opinion it just becomes just another surface to polish and wax and worry about scuffs, scrapes and scratches… especially if you ever plan to use the trunk tub in there again!
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I used a combination of heat gun, wire wheel, scrapers, and lacquer thinner.  Getting all of the grease, grime, and undercoating out of all the nooks and crannies is tough!  This has got to be one of the most miserable jobs I’ve ever performed on a car. If I were to do it all over again, I think I’d just paint it all with Aircraft Stripper and rinse it all away.  Oh well, live and learn.  Following is what I did.

Stripping the Engine Bay
I first used the heat gun to heat the undercoating which was relatively easy to scrape off with a metal scraper.  I tried a plastic scraper to protect the surface beneath but found it could not stand up to the heat.  Scraping was a challenge due to all the unusual angles and curves, as well as a LOT of factory weld splatter which would not allow the scraper to glide smoothly across the various surfaces.

Removing the grease and grime
Getting all the grease, grime, and undercoating out of all the nooks and crannies is tough!  This has got to be one of the most miserable jobs I’ve ever performed on any car. If I were to do it all over again, I think I’d just paint it all with Aircraft Stripper and rinse it all away. Oh well, live and learn.​

Rerouted the wiring harness and removed the metal straps 
Rerouted the wiring harness behind the fender and removed the metal straps that secured the harness and AC hoses to the inner fender. I used a grinder to grind down the spot welds – obviously the quick and inexpensive assembly line process was to just tack on a metal strip wherever you needed to secure hoses or wires. I removed most all of them in favor of proper clamps.

I re-welded the camber bar mounting points. The factory welds here were sloppy boogered-up welds which did not inspire confidence. I also ground the welds smooth for a cleaner appearance.
Filling spot welds in the engine bay. I’ve heard it wasn’t necessary since I was planning to shoot the bay with truck bed liner, but I’m a stickler for detail. 
 
Primer-sealer for the bare metal.
Sandable filler primer – It really wasn’t necessary to put this much effort into the finish since it’s going to be covered with truck bed-liner.
Masking to repaint the flat black areas at the front of the engine compartment and under the roof, as well as the inside-rear tail light panel.
First coat of Eastwood Chassis Black Extreme (satin). Applied two coats.

Bed Liner Application
Scuffing the surface with 80 grit in preparation for the bed liner.

First coat of bed liner. I used a POR-15 Power Liner Kit. It came out great. Instructions say to shoot it at 30-70psi, but I shot it at 105psi for a finer finish (smaller pebbling of the surface). I also have 2 quarts left to do the fender wells or front trunk – but I haven’t decided yet.

The Power Liner Kit is no longer available from POR-15, but they now sell an “OEM Bed Liner product, which I’ve linked. I’ve also used the SEM Pro-Tex Bed Liner Kit from Amazon on my daughter’s F-250 truck and found it to be very similar to the POR-15 product.

Second coat complete. It looks amazing! I should have removed the AC condenser to get it out of the way. It would have been easier not having to work around that thing.

My finished engine bay. Picture to come.

Here are a couple of pics of 6422’s engine bay which is refinished similar to mine. Note that the bedliner coating hides all the spot-weld dimples and imperfections in the engine bay.

© Pantera Club of Northern California 2024

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