Painting Plenum, plz help

[tkoforpresident]

Hey ya'll, i picked up some paint at advance to paint my air plenum on my 3.4 gonna paint it red with the lettering white, and then finish it off with a clear coat. I got 500 degree paint, will that be good enough? And is a clear coat a good idea? Also, anyone who's ever taken off the 3.4 plenum, is it hard? I've heard it's just a couple of bolts, but i'm not sure. And is there any sense in cleaning it (cosidering it will be off) or cleaning anything about it while i have the opportunity to? =) thanx

[98 3.8]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

Hit it with some engine degreaser before you paint. It'll be less likely to flake off. Do like 3 coats...and don't use clearcoat unless you want it to stay nice and glossy. ;)

[2000_camaro]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

it should work, post some pics when your done cause im thinking about doing this also

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

but i do want it to be nice and shiny, don't ya'll think that it'd look good with the clear coat? If i'm taking it out how should i go about cleaning it... sand paper? Wire brush? thanx

[2000_camaro]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

id use a wire brush but im not sure cause i havent done it and i would clear coat it cause i would want it to shine

[98 3.8]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

Yeah sorry...I guess you didn't detect my joking tone in that last sentence. I WAS saying you should use clearcoat. Otherwise the paint will get nasty after a few thousand miles.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

Yeah sorry...I guess you didn't detect my joking tone in that last sentence. I WAS saying you should use clearcoat. Otherwise the paint will get nasty after a few thousand miles.

my bad =) thanx

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

still wonderin how easy it is to take off or whether i should just try to do a good job tapin it off and keeping on the engine.... anyone take off the plenum before?

[David8399]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

paint the letters white first then tape them off and paint the rest red.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

paint the letters white first then tape them off and paint the rest red.

is there a reason to do that? it would seem easier to do it the other way first.

[rt1]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

Hey, just wanted to pass on some info on this.

The best way to do it is to have the plenum out. The bad news is that it isn't just a couple of bolts. There are, I think 6 to 7 10mm bolts that hold the upper intake to the lower. To get to those you remove the injectors, fuel rails and vacume lines. The EGR has to come off also, and there's a couple of little things attached also. Try to remember where the bolts go also, because I think they were of two different sizes, one longer than the other.

There really isn't all that much clearance from the top of the engine to the cowl. That's why it only make since to take it out, unless you mask off most of the front of the car to paint the plenum.

I painted the plenum the painted the "3.4 SFI" after. I do models in my spare time and have a bunch of bottle paints and brushes. I never thought about taping it off and lifting the tape. It just seemed easier for me to paint them after.

Gaskets, have gaskets ready... the EGR has one, and there's one between the intakes.

Here's a pic before I touched it up...



And my avatar on boards that don't charge $



Any other ?s just shoot.

Rob

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

Hey, just wanted to pass on some info on this.

The best way to do it is to have the plenum out. The bad news is that it isn't just a couple of bolts. There are, I think 6 to 7 10mm bolts that hold the upper intake to the lower. To get to those you remove the injectors, fuel rails and vacume lines. The EGR has to come off also, and there's a couple of little things attached also. Try to remember where the bolts go also, because I think they were of two different sizes, one longer than the other.

There really isn't all that much clearance from the top of the engine to the cowl. That's why it only make since to take it out, unless you mask off most of the front of the car to paint the plenum.

I painted the plenum the painted the "3.4 SFI" after. I do models in my spare time and have a bunch of bottle paints and brushes. I never thought about taping it off and lifting the tape. It just seemed easier for me to paint them after.

Gaskets, have gaskets ready... the EGR has one, and there's one between the intakes.

Here's a pic before I touched it up...



And my avatar on boards that don't charge $



Any other ?s just shoot.

Rob

thanx for the tips,

after attempting to take out the plenum i realized it was as hard as you said and would have taken me quite some time to dissassemble. So i went with plan B, I masked off every god known piece of equipment surrounding the plenum and sprayed away. I ended up doing 3 coats of red, touched up the "3.4 SFI" with white paint and then finished it off with a clear coat. Turned out fairly well (there are a few bare spots if you really examine, but just by looking at it, you couldn't really tell.) All in all i'm pleased and will try to get a pic of it up as soon as i figure out how to (anybody know how to post pics?)

thanx again

Maximus

[Heartbeat_of_94]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

all you do is put

[img]insert the image link[/img]

and thats all there is to it. you can use something like photobucket.com or imageshack.us to upload your pics to the web and get the link

[Oi Bird V8]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

i will paint my old one and sell it to u if u want.. basically just pay cost of paint and maybe like 15 bucks or something man? ... its just taking up space right now
interested??

[black95maro]

Re: Painting Plenum, plz help

dont watn to hijack the thread but i have a quick questions for rt1 what can you run at the track with your cam and all??