Engine colors

[junkyardjeff]

Well it looks like my old Model Masters GM blue has dried up so is there anyone making engine colors now.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Duplicolor in big cans.

[junkyardjeff]

Building a mid 70 s Chevy truck and the engine might just get painted orange,not really wanting a big can. If I go GM blue I will try to find something close.

[Ace-Garageguy]

37 minutes ago, junkyardjeff said:

Building a mid 70 s Chevy truck and the engine might just get painted orange,not really wanting a big can. If I go GM blue I will try to find something close.

Well, unless it's supposed to be a new truck or recently 'restored', rebuilt engines got painted all kinds of colors that weren't even close to factory.

I bought a Jasper-rebuilt 327 / 365 HP Chevy that came in a nasty shade of medium green back in the late 1970s, and I painted several of the engines I built myself black for the street, and sometimes white or light gray for racing engines so we could see leaks better.

Engine colors also change over time after repeated heating and cooling cycles. Cylinder heads in particular change color dramatically sometimes in just a few thousand miles, and the factory didn't go to a whole lot of trouble to make 'em pretty anyway. Thin paint could be badly discolored or just gone in not too long.

    

Try to find two people who agree on the color early Ford V8 flatheads are supposed to be, for example.

Edited November 12 by Ace-Garageguy

[Shark]

MCW has small enamel jars for engine colors 

[Rodent]

Agree with Bill. The big cans of 1:1 paint work great on models (in my experience) and they aren't very expensive for how much you get. I needed something close to that weird turquoise that Chrysler used, so I bought...... Duplicolor.

Spousal unit wanted some strange wood decorations painted bluish and orangish. They became Duplicolor Ford blue and Chrysler Hemi orange from my stash. The Hemi Orange was preferred over the Chevy orange when presented with spoon tests.

Or also agreeing with Bill, paint it black and use the story that it is a Targetmaster rebuild from GM 🙂

 

[iamsuperdan]

If you have an airbrush...

Airbrush Ready. Shake, Load, N' Spray!

 

 

[Mike 1017]

7 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

If you have an airbrush...

Airbrush Ready. Shake, Load, N' Spray!

 

 

Engine Colors

[TransAmMike]

Would you believe I've actually been able to find craft paint that pretty closely matches some of the colors....and they are cheap at HL.

[PowerPlant]

Pro scale paints in the UK have a decent selection of engine colors:

 

Edited November 14 by PowerPlant

[stavanzer]

I put a Long Block 400 CI in a '73 Chevy Wagon in 1982. It was painted gloss Black. I was told that many "Less Expensive" rebuilders chose that colour because it was fast, cheap and worked on any engine they rebuilt. No Blue, No Red, No Orange....

It was a Good Block, but the 400 Smallblock was never a great engine. I sold the car a year later when I joined the USAF.

[bobss396]

I found an Ace Hardware paint that is good for a late Ford engine color. It covers well and dries fast.

[junkyardjeff]

I borrowed a can of GM blue from a guy at work to paint the engine,I did find a bottle at HL that might be close.

[bobss396]

15 hours ago, bobss396 said:

I found an Ace Hardware paint that is good for a late Ford engine color. It covers well and dries fast.

The color of the Ace paint I mentioned is Brite Blue.

[Chris V]

Gravity-Colors and Zero Paints offer seceral engine colors (Zero toned theirs after the Testors bottles).