Opinions on Engine Color? Orange or Gold

[PatrickGMC70]

Hey everyone.

I'm rebuilding my engine and trying to decide on what color to paint it.

I'm leaning toward Chevy Orange, but I keep having a thought in the back of my mind about Olds Gold/Gold metallic.

The truck is Med Gold. If/when I ever paint the truck, it will be gold-ish, but not necessarily this exact color. Since I have a 1-year old, I'm not planning to jump into any body/paint work any time soon.

If it matters, I'm probably going to go with an aluminum or chrome intake and chrome valve covers and air cleaner. Other components will either be black (AC, PS, pulleys, brackets) or chrome (alternator).

On one hand, I don't see how I can go wrong with factory Chevy orange.

On the other, I don't know that I'd say orange is the best color to go with the gold color of the truck. A gold engine would look a little more custom. But there's always the thought that a gold engine will get lost in the engine bay, and since I'm not painting the engine and truck at the same time, they won't be a perfect color match.

Whenenver I mention possibly painting the engine gold, people look at me like I'm crazy.

Thanks for your opinions!

Pic of truck:

[DesertCat]

I think that would look great. Somewhere down my priority list is painting my engine something other than orange or black.

Orange just isn't my thing any more, guess I'm tired of it. Top three colors in my mind would be gold, silver or grey. Sounds boring to some but I dunno.

I say go for what you want. If you change your mind you're only out a few bucks in paint and some time.

[MusicMan70]

Do the Gold!

[jocko]

is the whole truck going to be custom? Then gold.
if it's gonna remain basicallyh stock - orange. Not much looks better (to me) than a fresh chev orange painted engine. And the factory parts have a charm all their own, so be cautious of throwing money after chrome - you'll inevitably end up chainging it back to stock someday (or maybe not), but it can save a lot of bucks to just keep it stock looking. Only cost is elbow grease.

Having said all that - the gold color would go nicely with your truck if you decide to go a little bt custom.

[SS Tim]

If you want a stock look go with the orange. It goes well with gold and any polish or chrome will look good. If you want performance a satin black will give you the best heat rejection possible.

[Stocker]

I grew up believing Chevy engines are meant to be orange. When mine was rebuilt years ago, the rebuilder painted it blue. I'm still not used to it. Unless you're building a full custom show truck, I'd go with orange. It just looks right to me.

[Billett]

Gold! These guys are too set in their ways. That would look awful to walk up to in a show and see a nice gold truck and all of the sudden this big orange mess in the engine bay. I think at the very least I would do black with some chrome/aluminum parts to match the outside of the truck.

[luvbowties]

Originally Posted by PatrickGMC70

Hey everyone.

I'm rebuilding my engine and trying to decide on what color to paint it.

I'm leaning toward Chevy Orange, but I keep having a thought in the back of my mind about Olds Gold/Gold metallic.

The truck is Med Gold. If/when I ever paint the truck, it will be gold-ish, but not necessarily this exact color. Since I have a 1-year old, I'm not planning to jump into any body/paint work any time soon.

If it matters, I'm probably going to go with an aluminum or chrome intake and chrome valve covers and air cleaner. Other components will either be black (AC, PS, pulleys, brackets) or chrome (alternator).

On one hand, I don't see how I can go wrong with factory Chevy orange.

On the other, I don't know that I'd say orange is the best color to go with the gold color of the truck. A gold engine would look a little more custom. But there's always the thought that a gold engine will get lost in the engine bay, and since I'm not painting the engine and truck at the same time, they won't be a perfect color match.

Whenenver I mention possibly painting the engine gold, people look at me like I'm crazy.

Thanks for your opinions!

Pic of truck:

I couldn't concentrate on engine color due to seeing what I term a very straight, sanitary-looking, original-looking, well taken-care-of truck! Nice is not a word to cover its entire look.....MAN!
Sam

[MARKDTN]

I vote orange. IMHO chevy engines should be chevy colors. I have a '79 C10 with an Olds 350 (Ex Diesel truck) and the engine is orange. It just does not look right.

[yuccales]

Be a trendsetter, go CAT yellow! BTW, that's a great looking truck.

[Lattimer]

In a gold truck the orange will look like hell, so unless its a true restoration, scrap that.

Personally, in a gold truck, I would go with a black engine.

[cstewart8808]

I went and looked at a big block cutlass a couple weeks ago which was gold and had gold engine and it looked really good. It just looked like it belonged there. I will try to get pics this evening

[alsriv2]

When I was having to decide what to do about an engine color, I looked at all kinds of options. Being as my truck ('69 Chevy C10) is not original, I had to make sure my engine would not disappear in the black engine compartment. I didn't really want to go with the original Chevy orange, but I did want to stay GM.

Here is a couple of pictures of what I went with: A late Corvette Metallic Copper

Stayed with the Chevy theme but this will POP in my black engine bay.

[brad_man_72]

Whatever you do clean the engine up first, break out the angle grinder and dremel and smooth out all of the casting flaws. Makes it look custom and a lot easier to clean.
I vote gold also...
Posted via Mobile Device

[brad_man_72]

Forgot to attach pic of how I smoothed out my block and heads.
Posted via Mobile Device
Posted via Mobile Device

[eldogg]

I did a gold engine w/ black valve covers & etc in a tan/brown square body suburban a few years ago and it looked awesome. Gold would be my choice but Either way do what YOU want to It's YOUR truck. I've painted a lot of Chevy motors Ford grey.
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[Daner]

I'm planning on painting my 1952 Nash engine gold since 52 was the golden anniversary. Something different from gray lol. I don't plan on selling it either. Might be something to think about. Some people REALLY like stock.

[68Gold/white]

Paint it whatever color you desire!!!

Most folks are not aware that Chevrolets (since 55) have NOT always been orange. I've seen yellow and gray, been told ther were others. also. Most of these different colors were in 50's and early 60's...

Pick out the color of gold you'd like the paint the pickup, and paint the engine that color. Hang on to that paint code for the body paint job.

Don't wait too long to paint the body. Rules are changing rapidly about the sales of paint, and paint products (thinners and such). All kids of chenges are happening concerning EPA regulations. Water paint is not an uncommon thing, right now, and might be the only thing soon...although I'm not an authority on all these things, just beware...

[PatrickGMC70]

Holy cow - I'm stunned by the number of responses so far.

First, thanks to all of you. I really appreciate it. Also, thanks for all of the nice things about the truck. I haven't been able to do too much to it since my son was born, but I'm trying to do a little at a time and just enjoy what I have.

So to answer one of the questions, the truck will be "custom" but in the poor-man's sense of the word - no "67 cheby" build for me. (that truck is gorgeous though). I'm looking for mostly original - I don't want to lose all the character of an old truck by making it handle like a 2013 model, but I do plan to lower it a bit (4/6 drop maybe), add disc brakes, maybe a retofit AC to eliminate the giant heater box in the engine compartment, relocate the gas tank just to shut my wife up, and if I ever decide to stop putting things in the bed, maybe a wood bed floor but then it'll just be a show truck at that point.

So, losing the orange won't crush my dreams. I guess I posted up because when I thought of going gold, people looked at me like I said "pink" or "zebra pattern."

As for the exact color, I probably won't have some body color mixed or sprayed - instead it'll be something simple like VHT Gold Metallic. Here's a link: http://www.jegs.com/i/VHT/322/SP404/10002/-1 Eastwood also has paint, but it looks like I'd either have to brush it on or get a spray gun. I'm not looking to get that complicated with this.

So when it comes time to paint the truck, I'll just have to be "close enough" because I'm not rattle-canning the whole truck. (By the way, if I didn't mention this earlier, I'm thinking the truck will be either all gold metallic, or a gold and ivory two-tone.

Anyway, I just want to say again that I really appreciate the feedback. Now I'm leaning back to the gold. Whatever I decide to do, I'll definitely post up the results.

(BTW, I'm not really considering painting the engine black. I want to be able to see when the engine's leaking, plus I like the idea of a little "pop" under the hood.)

[dohyde34]

orange, i just dont think it should be anything but orange imo. i am going to do a cummins swap in a square body and will paint the cummins orange.

[CG]

Well I like gold engines, but I like em in hot rods and customs. If someone pops the hood on a nice Chevy truck like yours, and sees a very nicely detailed engine compartment with a Chevy orange engine and thinks it looks bad or wrong they need to have their Chevy Man Card taken away.

[Z10]

My vote Orange. Just painted not long ago . Haven't had time to get the aluminum oil pan on just yet

[oldschool18]

I would go with gold or black.........I dont make anything stock

[71veronica]

imo go gold or black. or both it would match your truck. haha

[~Whitey~]

Here's mine. I'll be taking my truck back to it's original color of Black. Orange would look good with Black also.. I just like Green better.





If you could match the color of your truck with some chrome accents that would look really nice in my opinion.