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engine cover removal?

aeropaul

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I've been trying to picture in my head how it would look if the engine covers were dyed the exterior color of the car. I'd leave the black 5.0 accent panel as is, and all the gray covers color-matched to my comp orange exterior. IDK, maybe it would look like hammered dog crap, but it might look cool. Anyone good enough with photoshop to make that pic?

I do love the idea of a carbon fiber engine cover set, and CF intake tube.
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tbonez3858

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One of the best pieces of advice I've gotten about car detailing is to use engine cleaner on the car every time or every second time you wash it. I spray the car down with water and then I hit the engine with car cleaner. While the engine cleaner is sitting I wash my wheels. Then I hose down the engine and take a rag and wipe the engine down for about a minute. The entire process takes no more than three minutes. I've been doing this process on my current car and my engine literally looks just like it did when it rolled off of the showroom floor....and Im not joking. My engine looks brand new. You really dont need an engine cover if you are willing to spend a few minutes each wash.

I always chuckle when someone tells me they are a car guy and then they show me their engine and it looks like something that should belong in a junk yard.
 

DBCooper

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I've been trying to picture in my head how it would look if the engine covers were dyed the exterior color of the car. I'd leave the black 5.0 accent panel as is, and all the gray covers color-matched to my comp orange exterior. IDK, maybe it would look like hammered dog crap, but it might look cool. Anyone good enough with photoshop to make that pic?
.
Here's a whole thread full of painted engine covers...

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/foru...128-official-engine-bay-picture-thread-4.html
 

scottpe

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One of the best pieces of advice I've gotten about car detailing is to use engine cleaner on the car every time or every second time you wash it.
A lot of this has to do with where you live, how many miles you drive and what kind of conditions you have to drive in. Overall my car doesn't get that dirty in the engine bay, and I don't like exposing the motor and all of its sensors, connectors, etc. to that much water on a regular basis (it tends to eventually find its way into places you don't want it), so your ritual seems a bit excessive to me.

I find that simply wiping down the exposed surfaces with a damp towel makes the engine look brand new on its own, and full engine 'washes' are pretty infrequent for me, unless fluids get spilled. But again, I recognize that every situation is different.
 

JimmyTwoTimes

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One of the best pieces of advice I've gotten about car detailing is to use engine cleaner on the car every time or every second time you wash it. I spray the car down with water and then I hit the engine with car cleaner. While the engine cleaner is sitting I wash my wheels. Then I hose down the engine and take a rag and wipe the engine down for about a minute. The entire process takes no more than three minutes. I've been doing this process on my current car and my engine literally looks just like it did when it rolled off of the showroom floor....and Im not joking. My engine looks brand new. You really dont need an engine cover if you are willing to spend a few minutes each wash.

I always chuckle when someone tells me they are a car guy and then they show me their engine and it looks like something that should belong in a junk yard.
That last comment seems a little strange to me. Being a "car guy" doesn't mean you necessarily keep your car's appearance immaculate all the time. You can enjoy driving without caring too much whether your car is showroom sparkly or not. Also, how often do you actually look in your engine bay? I can tell you for me, I've opened the hood of my car exactly twice so far this calendar year -- both times when I needed to fill up my windshield washer reserve. That's it. The mechanics who did my oil changes and repairs had to open the hood too, but I'm really not concerned with what they think about the way my car looks.
 

tbonez3858

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That last comment seems a little strange to me. Being a "car guy" doesn't mean you necessarily keep your car's appearance immaculate all the time. You can enjoy driving without caring too much whether your car is showroom sparkly or not. Also, how often do you actually look in your engine bay? I can tell you for me, I've opened the hood of my car exactly twice so far this calendar year -- both times when I needed to fill up my windshield washer reserve. That's it. The mechanics who did my oil changes and repairs had to open the hood too, but I'm really not concerned with what they think about the way my car looks.
Those are good points and everyone has the right to their own view. I have first hand experience that appearance makes a difference with how your possessions are treated, however. In my last job our data center was maintained poorly. When vendors came in they would do a crappy job because it was a crappy environment. We had breakage all of the time because the perception was that we didnt care about the data center and hence the employees and vendors didnt. All of the work in the data center was substandard because we set a precedent that substandard work was acceptable. We built a brand new 15 million dollar data center from the ground up and managed it impeccably. The vendors and employees treated their work completely different. Our incident rate fell by 40% in the new data center.. We dont even have to tell people our standards because the maintained example is excellence. People understood the bar was raised so they raised their work to meet the standard.

I can give a half a dozen instances in which I've experienced first hand that others treat you and your property differently based on how you present yourself and what shape your property is in. I am not a mechanic but if you bring a car in and its garbaged up Im not going to spend any effort to keep it nice. If you roll in with an impeccable engine bay, clear interior and washed exterior then Im going to go the extra mile.
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