Due to popular demand, here is the first in a series of how to dress up your engine compartment. Tutorial 1 features how to paint the lettering on your valve cover. I hope it's pretty self explanitory. If you'd like, you can see the finished product here. Just scroll down to the very bottom.

Now, on to the tutorial. Please note, it may be a good idea to print this, so you can refer back to it while painting.

Painting Your Engine Lettering And Oil Cap

Painting the lettering on your engine (The Mazda logo, DOHC 16 Valve, and the filler cap) can add ALOT of class to your engine compartment in less than an hour. When I received the car, it was one of the first things I thought of doing, and I'm surprised to see how little it has been done, considering how much it adds to the look of your engine. With that, let’s begin.

For this project, I chose to use the same paint I did my callipers with. Tremclad, brush on "Fire Red" Acrylic. You may use another color to match your car if you wish, but be sure not to use the spray-on variety for this project, as the paint is just far to thin. A small can should only set you back a few bucks at Home Depot.

I was a little sceptical about the paint holding up under the high heat at first, but now that I've had my lettering painted for a few months now without any problems I can confidently say that doing this is not a concern.

To begin, make sure the Engine is COLD! I can't stress this enough! Not cold as in "she's been sitting outside all night in the frost" but as long as the engine hasn't been run in a few hours, you're ok. If the engine is warm, you run the risk of the paint not adhering properly. If it's too cold, the paint might even freeze. For a safe bet, as long as the car has been in a heated garage all night, without being run, you're ready to begin.

Take some rubbing alcohol, or lacquer thinner, and clean all the areas to be painted. Don’t use lacquer or alcohol on your oil cap, or the plastic will melt. Instead, just wash it thoroughly in any grease cutting dish soap (Dawn works great) and dry thoroughly. As long as you don’t leave too many fingerprints on the areas to be painted, you’re ok.

Now, you’re ready to paint. We’re only going to paint the raised areas of the lettering on the engine, which makes it a lot easier. Select an appropriate brush (any fine brush from a hobby store, or even the home décor aisle of Home Depot carries them) and dip the tip into your (well-shaken) paint. Paint the raised parts of the lettering all the way to the edges (as seen in the photos,) but you don’t need to be too careful in getting paint over the edges. This is easily removed later. Once this is done, allow it to dry FULLY overnight. To assist in this process, find a small fan of some sort, and prop it up under the hood to blow air over the paint. Without doing this, the paint will take in excess of 48 hours to fully dry.

Moving on now to the filler cap, it can be painted with the same paint as before. You might at this point want to stick a clean rag into the filler opening to keep dust and debris out of your engine for the night. Liberally apply paint to the center circle section of the cap (once again, as seen in the photos.) You can put the paint on pretty thick here, for a nice even coat. Don’t worry about the edges. Once the paint is dry, the excess can be removed. Set the cap aside to dry overnight.

Now that our paint is dry, we can trim the excess. I hope this doesn't sound too complicated, but bear with me. With a new razor blade, simply hold the blade at a 45* angle to the edges (as seen from the front) and trim the excess paint off easily. An old toothbrush or something similar is helpful for removing the paint flakes once they have been trimmed.

On the Oil filler cap, the same can be completed, but instead by holding the blade at a flat angle paralell to the border piece, and trimming the paint there.

Your cap can now be re-installed, and the engine marvelled at. As you can see, a simple, 45 minute job can add SO much life to your engine compartment.

Good luck with your project!

Nick

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Yeah that looks fresh and stuff, but I gotta question more about your front bumper. Did you have the bolt hole shaved, or does the Canadian model have a different way to mount the front license plate? Cause I'm havein a buddy who works at a Mazda shop shave mine, I'm also gettin hooked up with a painted MP3 front lip.

 

In Alberta, we don't have front license plates, so the plate holders are not attached by the dealers here. Mazda just has two indentations for where the screws will go into the bumper to hold the frame. If you have the plate holder attached, I guess body and paint work is the only option. If you just take the plate holder off, maybe the holes won't look too terrible, give it a try.

One nice thing about being here, no ugly plate holders on our cars.

Dale.

 

Dale said it. The indentations that come from the factory are VERY miniscule as well. You can't notice them unless you really go looking. The painted lip is a good idea too. I was contemplating that one myself. Take some shots when it's done for sure so we can have a look.

 

Did you run into the problem of brush strokes showing up in the paint? I can't paint too well and everything I have ever tried had lines all over.

Also wouldn't it be a good idea to get some vasoline and smear it around the letters in case you get sloppy and overbrush onto the cover?

 

Dave,

The instructions show how to remove the excess with a razorblade. As for brush strokes, I have none. I painted the letters, and the paint was wet enough to fill them in whilst drying. If you'd like, you can run the engine while they're at the halfway point of drying. That'll soften the paint, and get rid of the brush strokes.

 

Hey Nick... did you do your calipers with a brush too?? Thinking about yellow on mine.

Should be back to normal this week. Hopefully I will get this 150k. deal I've been working on!

Don

 

Don,

Yep, did the callipers with a brush too. I'll let you have a closer look when we meet up. Like I said before, there are no brushstrokes. I did 3 coats with the Tremclad Gloss Red, and I'm glad I did it with the brush. Masking off all the parts to be painted, without taking off the callipers is next to impoosible. I tried to do that on one wheel, but after 45 minutes and I barely had anything masked, I ripped it off and did it by hand. Worked REALLY well if I do say so myself...

How's this week look for coffee? Even on the weekend I'm not doing anything, so if things are getting a little less hectic (believe me, I know what it's like...) then maybe we can finally meet up. Send me an email and we'll iron out the wrinkles if anytime soon looks good for you.

We'll keep in touch.

Nick

 

Hi Nik,
Can you re-post the pictures of your painted engine? I am thinking of trying that this weekend and would like to see what yours looks like.

The instructions were great.

 

The info was very helpful, I am in the process of painting my lettering right now...click the link in my signature to check out the pictures!

 

Nice car!