Ideas for Engine Clean-Up and Paint

[gjordan]

Be very very careful of any cleaning solvent or spray, even of spray paint. I got a job on a motor yacht when the engineer cleaned parts in the engine room, and had an explosion. He got a 1000 mile flight in an air ambulance to the nearest burn center where I understand that he recovered, but that is not an experiance that anyone wants to go through. Brake clean is one of the more volital sprays and can be extreamly dangerous. It can also disolve some paints.(learned that one the hard way). Ventilate, Ventilate, Ventilate._____Grant.

[Florida Mike]

Dawn dish washing soap. No harmful fuems. Mike

[casual]

Just went through a simuliar project not as bad as yours.For simplicity I,pulled the engine out,used a rust removeing spray on product Home Depot,cleaned grease with simple green,blew dry.Painted with Yanmar engine paint.Also cleaned bilge.ect.Pull Engin no big deal.

[Ex-Calif]

Ya'll are aware this is a two and a half year old thread, right? OzMike might be done with his repaint already - LOL

But it is timely as I am about to embark on a bilge renovation myself...

Here's a before pic...

Plan to use lots of elbow grease and dishwashing liquid.

Might build a new equipment bay floor out of 1/2 inch marine ply followed by a nice coat of white epoxy paint.

All metal will get rustoleum black. As a traditionalist the engine will get a good coat of high temp rustoleum followed by Volvo green.

Will let you all know how it looks in a few weeks.

[brankin]

I try to not let even a little grease/oil get into my bilge. I would degrease with massive amounts of paper towels and degreaser of your choice. When you get it clean, hit the rust with a descaler like this one on ebay
LENCO Pneumatic Descaler Model No. DS6003, wt 12pc descaling needles. | eBay

Prime with a DTM primer (direct to metal primer) and then paint with high temp paint.

[Cheechako]

Show us how it looks when you're done....! Nothing feels better than a bilge re-do!