painting upper intake plenum?

[1990LTD]

I've seen a few cars on here with intake plenums in colors other than the classic Ford "meh" grey.


How should one prepare the upper intake for paint? I know I'll have to use a high-heat paint, I just want to make sure it'll stick to the damn thing in the first place.

[1980c10]

dont have to use high heat upper intake does not get that hot

[1990LTD]

oh, okay. that'll open up my options for color, then. thanks.

[pantera77]

dont have to use high heat upper intake does not get that hot

Yea, I just used some regular paint. It was Rustoleum's Hammered paint. It's great for filling in little imperfections and sticks great.

[91grandmarquis]

Im not a huge fan of Rustoleum, Ive had bad luck with it is all. I prefer the dupont paint, but its $12 a can. Whatever you use it doesn't have to be high heat. Im just glass beading and clear coating mine.

[1990LTD]

what do i need to do to it before painting?

[91grandmarquis]

Depends, to make it really smooth I would glass bead it, You could blast it, or you could just clean the sucker off with some good degreaser.

[1990LTD]

I don't even know where I'd go to get it glass beaded, but I don't think I want to go that far with it.

I don't even know exactly what glass beading is, I'm assuming it has a shitload of glass beads thrown at it to clean it up?

[zoomie]

glass beading, media blasting, sandblasting all have one thing in common to strip paint,rust etc off metal see if you can find a highschool vocational place around you like a votech or boces. they usually charge a reasonable fee for work, just need to be careful though my buddy jim had his car painted and it didnt come out perfect, but then again how do you screw up sandblasting,etc?

[87gtVIC]

Anyone who says that the plenum does not get hot is a liar. That thing gets plenty hot. I defy anyone of you to keep your hands on the plenum when the car is at operating temps, report back after your hands heal.

[pantera77]

Anyone who says that the plenum does not get hot is a liar. That thing gets plenty hot. I defy anyone of you to keep your hands on the plenum when the car is at operating temps, report back after your hands heal.

I put my hands right on it all the time? I can open the hood after a 30 mile drive put my hands on it all day. It certainly isn't cold but it's not scalding hot.

[cld783]

It can get hot enough to burn your hand. especially if you still have the egr coolant lines hooked up.

[jayh]

if its in nice shape, just scuff it with a scuff pad and spray it with engine paint

[91grandmarquis]

if its in nice shape, just scuff it with a scuff pad and spray it with engine paint

+1 Im not painting mine, just clearing it in, so it matters if its shiny. As long as yours is pretty smooth and not too corroded just clean it up and scuff it.

[insomniac391]

if its in nice shape, just scuff it with a scuff pad and spray it with engine paint

+2
I did mine red with flames. I just used a detail wire brush, shammy, and denatured alcohol to clean it, and i did used high-heat paint because mine does heat up.





I didn't even take mine off, which i probably should have.

My intake was scarred up though so it wasn't show quality.