Engine bay restoration progress

A couple of months ago, I decided that I would tackle a cosmetic restoration of the engine bay, but try not to go overboard. I asked my family to point out things that they noticed looked old or worn out, and they pointed out the many rusty bolts, faded black, old and yellowed stickers, and other things that I decided to tackle.

In an earlier post, I shared how I had modified the air intake and removed the unnecessary components from that system. I am still in the process of improving the look of the plastic air filter assembly. More to come on that in a later post.

Below is the engine bay before I started doing any work:

 This is how the engine bay looks as of recently:

I started the project by first removing the lower engine cover and the metal stay that holds it open. I plan on refinishing both. See below for some progress of other items in the engine bay that I have been working on.

This metal light switch bracket was rusting quite badly and the paint was flaking away. It was one of the biggest eye sores of the engine bay. Even the bolts that hold the resistor to the bracket were rusting badly:

Another couple of pictures after I removed it from the engine bay:

 

I cleaned up the rust using a wire wheel and a flapper grinder wheel. I plan on using black POR 15 and then giving it a nice finish using SEM Trim Black spray paint. Below is a picture of it next to the lower engine cover grills and the metal retaining stripcs. 

Here is the lower engine cover before I began restoring it. The original stickers are faded and have wrinkled. The grills have changed over time from their original black to almost a purple look, which is more noticeable in the picture above. My lower engine cover was also missing some of the metal retaining strips that hold the grills to the cover, and many of those that are in place are rusting. 

 The original black paint has also worn off in some places where it has apparently been rubbing other pieces:

The original stickers on the lower engine cover were not all created equal. The "negative earth" and the vacuum routing stickers that were wrinkled from heat and time easily peeled off, but the 30+ year old glue that stayed behind was a beast. I didn't use a special adhesive remover like I probably should have, but I used Goo Gone. It worked to get off some of it, but not all of it. I eventually ended up wet sanding where those two stickers were using 600 grit wet sand paper and it eventually worked in getting off the rest of the glue.

The emissions sticker didn't look too bad, but I decided that if I'm going to paint the whole cover, I should replace that sticker too. I ended up basically having to chisel it off one tiny piece at a time. Luckily my wife assisted with that, but her arm was very tired at the end. Goo Gone cleaned that up nicely.

After the retaining strips and the grills were removed, this is how it currently sits. I am going to clean up the rust on all of the metal clips that hold the retaining strips on, but I will not remove them and they will just get painted black since they are covered by the retaining strips.

I have decided to do something a little bit different for the grills on the lower engine cover. I am going to paint them with a stainless steel paint that another owner recommended. It is the Seymour brand of paint. I bought it from Summit Racing as it was cheaper than buying directly from Seymour.

I used cleaners and brushes to remove any dirt and grease off of the grills, which is kind of hard to do because they are so flimsy. I then attempted to straighten any of the fins that had bent or been misshapen over the years. A good tool to do this with is a Popsicle stick. I then put on two coats of primer on each side with plenty of drying time in between. Below is how one of them currently looks, prior to the stainless steel paint. More to come on the grills. 

As you can see in the "before" picture of my engine bay, you'll notice the plastic ignition cover looks terrible. It was broken by a previous owner and they attempted to fix it with what appears to be RTV sealant on the top and what appears to be hot glue on the bottom. In addition to it being broken, the original sticker that shows how to jump start the car was a nasty yellow color.

I contacted someone at DMC Talk that was parting out a DeLorean and purchased an ignition cover and a new engine bay light switch. Below is the new cover after I had removed the old and yellow sticker. It needs to be cleaned up some more and refinished with SEM Trim Black. 

On the left is my original cover and on the right is the one I purchased: