I have seen some images on this site that suggest the engine block , leads etc are actually not real but clay images, similar to concept cars. How the hell do you get them so clean? Other than lack of driving !!

interested in how some cleanse themselves....(or at least their motors)...


A1

i think many will agree with me when i say talk to "hanra" probably the cleanest mini on this site IMO. well the pics ive seen of it anyway....

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1968 Morris Mini Deluxe......sold
1992 Toyota Starlet GT EP82

Lots of hours under the bonnet - a little bit of cleaning regularly is better than having a heap to do every so often.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Most of the clean engines and engine bays happen while the engine is out for what ever reason.

For the engine itself, if its being rebuilt, is to have it chemically cleaned and then once its reassembled, couple of light coats of primer followed by several coats of a quality paint. Assembly of the engine is critical though so as to stop oil leaks occuring.

The gearbox is thoroughly cleaned using a pressure cleaner and often given a coat of clear engine paint to show a gloss. Again, careful assembly of the engine onto the gearbox to stop leaks occuring is important.

Cleaning and painting the engine bay is just hard work but worth the effort. The rest is just attention to detail and often a coat of clear to give it a gloss and make it easier to keep clean. Things like radiator, dizzy, leads alternator etc is what i am talking about.

clean engine bay = not driven

clean engine bays can get rooted, they're for show cars.. all my minis are for driving rain or shine!

Heres a pic from earlier this year with some crap removed....



Crap put back on....



This was a while ago, no chrome alternator or chrome SU dashpots.



The block was acid dipped prior to rebuild, but i still I fully paint stripped the engine/box prior to painting. It was painted once the motor/box was assembled. I used an etch primer underneath, then 2 Pac'd it. The motor has done 9000 miles since being painted in Jan 2003.

The engine bay was painted full gloss black in 2001. Semi gloss would be a lot easier to keep clean.

If the engine ever gets dirty, i clean it with Wax n Grease remover then use Mr Muscle or Instant shine, then have some other stuff i use.... I think its called Instant Showcar or something. Its a Mothers product. I also use that on the body/engine bay.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

here is my engine bay and i drive my car [/img]

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These all get driven





oops-except for this one yet

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there's one missing from a nice brown clubman

haha driven what, once a month? historic rego?

trailer queens piss me off, im here to throw down
rat rod styles, looks like crap, goes like greased lightning

banger rules ok

my mini's have looked like that. I ttok it to a mechanic once and he couldn't stop going on about how much a credit to me that I owned a car that old but was clean.

cleaned it up doing a rebuild, and it stayed that clean apart from when it was having problems but once they were fixed the engine glistened once again.

I only recently sold my chromed twin su's

I can't work on dirty cars I hate it. it took a bit of work but mine was on the road all the time doing big (for a mini) k's

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-doing a Degree in Mechanical Engineering,
and a few conversions:
13B Extend in a 1600
4EFTE in a mini ute (all slowly)

Oooo. Sounds like some ones jealous.....

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Hanras

If someone wants to spend as much time cleaning the engine bay of their mini as they do the outside then it's up to them , you can have a spotless engine bay on a road car , it just takes regular work to clean it . If you want a rat rod style then go for the rat rod style but don't bag out others who like a different style

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I can't afford to be a) off the road to paint and clean the engine bay and b)can't afford the paint atm =P

so until until I can afford too and the point a) is the main thing that's stopping me for now....it's gonig to have to look like the following

This is my engine bay.



Despite what Spaceboy probably thinks about my car, it IS driven everyday (usually between 25 - 75km per day), no matter what the weather (except hail). It just takes a bit of work to keep it looking like that, I don't have a problem with doing that. I figure most of the money in a car is invested in the engine - why not make it look good too?

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina