Engine bay suggestions

While I have the engine out I waned to clean it up and prep for paint. What do you guys suggest I use to clean, grit sand paper...process?

I plan to replace the brake booster and master. Does anyone make a engine bay hardware kit? If not what do you guys suggest to refresh the screw heads with? Thanks

Most of the vendors sell kits or at least packages of correct looking bolts if you don't want concours stuff.  As for paint, I chose Eastwood 2K ceramic. Very durable but expensive. you'll need 3 cans at least, but for chassis parts I used Eastwood chassis black. Cleaning is of course key, so when ready a final wipe down with grease and wax remover, duplicolor make it for one.

An oldie but goodie: wrap whatever shouldn't be painted (e.g. brake, fuel lines, wiring) with aluminum foil. Once the paint is dried, remove the foil.

Simple Green or Purple Power with hot water and a couple size scrub brushes for clean up. Wire wheels on a drill or angle grinder will clean up a lot of the rust.

If you're planning on using spray bombs, SEM Trim Black is a good paint to use. Krylon or Rustoleum semi-gloss work as well. If you plan on spraying, there's lots of options, but you'll need a flattener in the paint.

You can buy the hardware kits from any vendor that sells AMK fasteners. Many of them are similar size and finish, so I purchased bulk automotive fasterners made by AuVeCo since I wasn't worried about concourse correct hardware. They're sold all over the place on the internet in boxes of 25, 50 & 100

I am in the process of just cleaning my 73 Mach 1. Not doing a restore some areas are getting some attention to stop any rust that has started.

The Eastwood material is good for someone that does not have spray equipment. The original as you can see in my pics is very crappy finish. Was not smooth or even semi gloss.

I would take everything our, wires, fuel lines, brake lines and you can do a much better more professional job. I also took my front suspension off and put new rubber parts in the sway bar and such.

On the fasteners you can take pictures of where everything is and how the wiring and components are placed. If you have a local plating shop that does just normal plating you can take to them. If you wash the bolts and nuts in lacquer thinner and get any oil or sealer off then use a de rusting solution. Evapo rust or such to take the rust off. I have a tank of molasses but it is slow if you are in a hurry.

I took grill and fenders off so I could clean everything easily. Trash, leaves and such get caught inside the fenders and can hold water. Also check the cowl for trash or mice nests. I use mesh wire to put behind the vents and stainless steel scrubber pads the in the drains of the cowl to keep the mice out for good.

I did not want my car to look restored just a survivor original so I just wire brushed the fasteners some and spray satin clear on them to prevent rust.

I am taking all the parts that need phosphate coating to plating shop to have that re done. I sand blasted them. Parts that get phosphate are, hood latch, hood hinges, caps on front shocks, AC bracket on top and AC adjuster, cast iron AC compressor mount and the accelerator cable bracket on the engine.

The parts that get slop gray are the bracket in the center for grill and hood latch mount, the braces that go from the front fender to the radiator support, some of the headlight bucket components and the front license plate bracket. You can look at previous posts and see some great pictures on the forum.

When doing the slop gray I prefer to strip the parts using aircraft stripper and then blast them because they will have rust.

Sounds like a lot but a couple good weekends will get the job done. Just take lots of pictures and know there are lots of fasteners.

I sent the brake booster to booster Dewey for rebuild and I did the master cylinder myself to keep the original. I am going to do my next booster myself. It was over $120 in shipping for the booster plus $155 to rebuild. I was looking and I think NPD sells the components.

I polished the stainless on my grill if you do you will need to order a set of I think 16 clips they break when you remove the trim.

A clean, correctly painted under hood makes a car pop at the show for sure and anyone can do it especially while the engine is out.

Wire wheel on 4 1/2" grinder works well. If you can spray it all down with simple green or any kind of degrease then powerwash would be great. Scuff everything with sandpaper 220 grit or so and red scotch bright. Make sure everything gets scuffed. Use wax and grease remover before you paint to wipe everything down. As said earlier use aluminum foil for wires. I used rustoleum thinned with reducer and added a hardener then sprayed with my gun. Used satin black. Here is a link to the thread with lots of pics.

https://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-yellow-mach-1-is-back-again

Simple Green or Purple Power with hot water and a couple size scrub brushes for clean up. Wire wheels on a drill or angle grinder will clean up a lot of the rust.

If you're planning on using spray bombs, SEM Trim Black is a good paint to use. Krylon or Rustoleum semi-gloss work as well. If you plan on spraying, there's lots of options, but you'll need a flattener in the paint.

You can buy the hardware kits from any vendor that sells AMK fasteners. Many of them are similar size and finish, so I purchased bulk automotive fasterners made by AuVeCo since I wasn't worried about concourse correct hardware.  They're sold all over the place on the internet in boxes of 25, 50 & 100

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Are these hardware kits specific to our cars? What I was looking for was one of the all included kits like the interior or body hardware kits that are individually bagged and labeled.

If available from your auto body supply. Spray Max is a line of aerosol 1k and 2k. products including etch, epoxy, urethane primer, 4 gloss levels of black, matte and gloss clears. Most of their stuff also has adjustable fan spray nozzle. UPOL also makes some good products including 2k raptor bedliner in aerosol.

I will 2nd David's comment.

Pull everything you can out. it wont be fun, but there is no better time to take care of certain things than when the engine is out.

If you have any inkling to get new brake lines, NOW IS THE TIME. The full stainless brake line kits are only about $150 for the complete set. I just did that on mine but it was still in running condition. It was a massive pain in the ass, took many more hours than it should have. If the engine was out I could have done it in 3 or 4 hours instead of 30 or 40 hours.

I would also replace every vacuum line, fuel line, anything rubber you can that needs changing.

Once everything is out, hit it with simple green, something like that, and pressure wash it all. Then go in with a towel and spot clean anything left. Any loose paint will need to be sanded. Any bare metal should be sealed with Epoxy primer. I have been using Eastwood 2k spray epoxy primer. Its fantastic.

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-s-2k-aerospraytm-epoxy-primer-gray-black.html

I really like the Eastwood products. They have a solution for about everything.

Any wiring issues you have should also be addressed. Midlife harness can make you anything. He is fantastic with those wires.

You can also look on ebay for NOS parts that you might need.