Painting the chassis and engine without disassembly

[danungar]

My car was fully restored in the 60s and has been garage kept ever since, however much of the paint on the chassis and engine is starting to flake off exposing the bare metal. I don't have a large enough garage to disassemble the car, or the budget to pay someone else to do it right now, but have wondered if it's worth taping up adjoining parts and just hitting the chassis and engine with the appropriate rustoleum spray paints to stave off any rust growth.

Has anyone ever done this to their cars? If so, do you have any tips for going about it? The biggest obstacle I can perceive is dealing with areas where the paint is actively peeling, and joints where grease/oil/dirt is caked up, making it a difficult surface for paint to bond to.

To clarify, I'm strictly referring to the non-body paints of the car. The body panels are in fairly decent shape right now.

[ivaldes1]

Brush on the paint?

[Norman Kling]

The engine should be painted with heat resistant engine paint. The chassis can be painted with any good outside paint. Rustolium is a good brand. The problem with body panels and fenders is that unless the car was disassembled when it was "restored" the places where the panels are bolted together and the inside of the body where the panels are fastened to the wood might be rusting out. So disassembly or partial disassembly will reveal the situation in those areas.
Something interesting I observed many years ago was on our next door neighbors car. It was a car from the 40's or 50's which had been in an accident and he had the entire roof panel replaced and welded all around the edges. The outside of the top was painted, but over the years the area where it was welded actually rusted from the inside out. It rusted all the way through. This car was parked outdoors about 2 miles from the ocean and 1/2 miles from Mission Bay in San Diego. It doesn't rain often here but in that area near the ocean, there was salt spray from the ocean and also fog. It would condense on the inside of the body panels and they would rust. I had a Volkswagen Beetle at that time and the gas tank rusted out from the inside!. It had a lever where you would kick it for another gallon of gas. No gas gauge, just started to sputter and kick the valve to get to a gas station. Well I always filled up before it got low enough to kick it, so the water would accumulate in the bottom of the tank and rust out.
Norm

[John kuehn]

Being in the car isn’t the best place to paint the engine but if you want to do it rinse off the engine the best you can, peel off the flaking paint and use a brush to paint it. And again it will be a best you can considering the situation.
Go to a farm and ranch store and buy some rustoleum black enamel and use that.
Rustoleum enamel works well on rusty pipe, metal bins, and so on. I’ve used it on our farm on rusted metal pipe fence bracing and corner posts and it’s held up well several years outside in the elements. That’s what it’s for. Yes it’s best to sandblast, sand and clean metal but you can’t always doo that. It will last several years being hand brushed on. Especially in your situation.

[TRDxB2]

While you may tape around the area you want to paint - the over-spray mist will get on everything and even into your lungs (wear a mask)
Brush paint the chassis - and you can't really spray everything like the inside of the frame rail. I prefer Rustoleum Farm & Implement paint.
Question if the engine needs paint - but again brush it on. You only need 500 degree paint for the engine - again Rustoleum engine paint. The secret is to read the directions and let it cure properly. I do not like VHT (requires heat to cure). Have used Duplicolor on my brake rotors and it has held up well

[jiminbartow]

POR 15 (www.por15.com) would be a great paint to brush paint your chassis with. Jim Patrick.

[CudaMan]

Aluminum foil does a great job of masking. It can be wrapped around and crumpled as needed to fit oddball shapes.