EVOLUTION OF THE ENGINE BAY
One day I polished the turbo delivery pipe. It was shiny and good. I put it back on the car. Some months later I noticed how much duller it had become because it was oxidizing. So began the quest for a durable and heat resistant coating to protect the polished look. I found Glisten PC by the POR-15 people. I re-polished the pipe and clear-coated it. All was shiny and good again. Then I found Colorchrome, also by the folks at POR. It is designed to be painted over Glisten PC so I went and got me some of that and gave it a try.
It looked marvelous, but I had no idea if it could withstand the prodigious heat from the engine bay. Time would tell. Now the dirty black plastic engine cover was sitting there in ugly stark contrast. I therefore ran out and got hold of some hammer finish silver enamel and temporarily slapped that on the black plastic abomination:
You can see in the picture above that the exhaust manifold is a deep lustrous silver. This is POR-20, a wonderfully heat tolerant manifold paint with high aluminum solid content. It has proven very tough too, requiring only occasional touch-up. It is as easily brushed as it is sprayed. Good stuff.
Now with all these shiny transparent and transluscent painted parts going on I decided that the flat red DI cassette needed jazzing up. I tried Alsa Crystal FX with some nice transluscent basecoat red and blue polyurethanes and a touch of candy colors. The Crystal FX gave it a firing synapse look in keeping with the high voltage function of the DI Cassette. Here it is in close-up:
And here with the temporary engine cover and delivery pipe visible. Alas, it was way too busy looking: 
The silver engine cover was too much contrast so I decided to basecoat it in red with a candy accent. It was heartbreakingly lovely with an awe inspiring depth of finish: 
Here it is on the engine. By the time I did this, the heat had, of course, all but destroyed the finish on the DI cassette. It had melted, bubbled and finally dulled itself out, so the effort to tie the two together using red was doomed before it began:
This led inevitably to stripping the DI cassette and polishing it. In the interim, the red polyurethane also melted on the plastic engine cover. It gets pretty hot under there. Since the delivery pipe was Laser Blue and the Colorchrome seemed to be the only transparent paint that could withstand the heat (it had been on over a year now), it was to be Laser Blue Colorchrome for the engine cover too. This brings us to the next to last incarnation of the evolving engine bay: 
After all that, it was just a matter of tying all the other bits and pieces together with more blue, like the strut tower brace and the valve cover. Colorchrome would work fine on the brace, but I did not know if it would take the heat of direct application to the valve cover. I opted for a high quality engine enamel from POR-15 (up to 80% solids) in (ironically) Ford Corporate Blue, bringing us to the next to last look as shown on the first page:
Update: I finally got around to trying the ColorChrome Laser Blue on the valve cover. Here it is pre-wetsanding and polishing: 
And now on the car: 
I am simply awe-struck by the quality, durability and lasting beauty the ColorChrome paint provides. This paint is not billed as a high heat application, yet it has performed unbelievably well in the past 4+ years it has been on several engine parts. I have very high hopes for the valve cover at this point. The logos and banners depicted on this page are registered trademarks, or copyrighted or registered servicemarks of POR-15, whose products are displayed on this page. The reproduction herein of these logos, trademarks and servicemarks is provided for informational purposes only. Any unauthorized reproduction of these logos, banners, trademarks and servicemarks that does not constitute "fair use" under applicable copyright, trademark and unfair competition laws is forbidden.
Member of the Cardomain Club: Underground Tuner
