Painting Bay with motor still in.

[niccuhles]

Anyone have a pics of before, in progress and after pics? I really dont want to pull my motor just to paint the bay so kinda wanna see how it could be done without...

[spike68]

There are a lot of spaces that are just too tight to spray with the engine in place. It will probably wind up looking worse than it did or just clearly inconsistent. With that said unless youre planning on just painting the strut housings or something near the top its not really doable. I say do it right and pull the engine if you want to paint it that bad. Although most of the people who paint their bay just wind up doing because theyre already pulling the motor for a swap or for some other reason.

[The Real e30]

I've done it... Not that difficult just depends on what result you want is how much time you spend. I took off all the things around the strut towers and front end including radiator then wrapped/taped engine and everything else you don't want paint on. Get a smaller gun if you want to get in the tighter spots but really its just prep and technique and you can make it look as if engine was removed. Hope this helps!

[sampayne]

I've done it... Not that difficult just depends on what result you want is how much time you spend. I took off all the things around the strut towers and front end including radiator then wrapped/taped engine and everything else you don't want paint on. Get a smaller gun if you want to get in the tighter spots but really its just prep and technique and you can make it look as if engine was removed. Hope this helps!

Have any pictures?

[AndrewBird]

You'd probably spend the same amount of time masking everything as it would take to just pull the motor. And then you have way more room to prep and work, making that process faster as well.

[EyExR]

You'd probably spend the same amount of time masking everything as it would take to just pull the motor. And then you have way more room to prep and work, making that process faster as well.

Unless it's an iX

[The Real e30]

I'll see if I can dig up some pics and put them up later tonight.

You'd probably spend the same amount of time masking everything as it would take to just pull the motor. And then you have way more room to prep and work, making that process faster as well.

Not everyone has an engine hoist, and you would still have to remove all the miscellaneous bits around the engine bay to paint under them. The engine doesn't really interfere with anything if done right, other than the fact that the vertical areas directly left and right of it are at a bad angle and hard to reach. Then again, they are hardly visible and as long as you get some paint down there it will look fine. My original color was bronzit so it doesn't pop out in the areas I couldn't hit. Might be a different story with a red color.

[The Real e30]

[sampayne]

Wow, I'm impressed. That came out really nice. Good job!

[The Real e30]

Thank you! My first time doing any bodywork or painting and I'm happy with the results.

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[niccuhles]

Wow! Looks good. I think I'll try my luck with the motor in!