Engine Cover Customization

So last night I officially finished a project I had been working on for the past 2 weeks. Customizing the engine cover on the Challenger. I wanted to do this mostly because of that fact that the stock engine cover is pretty darn bland and when I pop the hood unfortunately there hasn't been a ton to look at. Well not anymore! The pictures will do most of the talking, but just wanted to note that while extremely time consuming the end result of this project was well worth it. I've shared these pictures and project write up on the Challenger Forum already, and plenty of people have already made requests for me to do the same to their engine covers [just use the color scheme that would match their car.]

I can't take all the credit though. I found out about this idea probably 5 or 6 months ago while I was still waiting for The Colonel to arrive, and had planned on doing it once the winter months hit. The guy who originally did the write up is named 'Speedy' and here's his awesome site. I followed his guide to the 'T' and it ended up coming out pretty good. There are a few minor imperfections here and there, but nothing terrible. I do plan on trying to touch some of them up in the next few weeks. Overall I'm satisfied, esp for tackling a project of this magnitude without any real prior experience to any of the stuff you see in this article. Anyways, as the pictures will dictate, the cover made quite the transition and was worth it in the end. Now when I go to a meet & greet or car show, I'll be very anxious to pop the hood so everyone can start checking it out with jealousy in their minds! On with the pictures, enjoy!

Stock cover and most of the supplies

I drilled holes in the corners, then drew my connecting lines with a sharpie, and then cut out this section using a dremel tool

Sanded down all the edges

Expanded aluminum insert trimmed, primed and painted semi gloss black

Masking off the HEMI lettering. This was a very difficult step. Cutting the tape to match the edges was a painstakingly slow process.

Outsides masked off, center primed and ready for paint

Painted semi gloss black [same as insert]

Center masked off, outsides prepped for paint

Spraying the Hemi Orange engine enamel. If I were to do this over again, I probably would have tried to lay the color in a better lit area than our garage. It got a couple paint runs cause I couldn't see well enough and ended up overdoing it a tad. Slow and gradual is the way to go with this one.

Recreating how the cover is held together from the factory. Using JB Weld to fasten back together in the spots that 6 posts used to be...before I cut them off.

Held together for drying with some quick clamps.

After I unmasked the HEMI lettering to reveal the silver, and applying the pinstriping, I threw down an entire can of clear coat. After that died I added the silver lettering of the 5.7L V8 by hand [also a slow process]

Set aside to dry again overnight.

Finally done, and reinstalled on the car! The reason I decided to add the aluminum mesh area was to allow heat to more easily escape off the engine to help keep the engine temperatures down. This combined with my functional hood scoops [which help bring in colder air into the engine bay] should make things run better in the long run. Plus you can still see the engine...which is nice!