328 Painting the plenum, what to use??

Has anyone painted the air plenum on their 328? I searched the posts & came up with some 308's that had been done but I'm not sure if the color is the same. I have to remove it to fix a coolant leak under there (caused by leaving the coolant out of it for a week while fixing my alternator...) & was going to paint it at some point anyways.

The questions are;
1. How to clean the aluminum? Just brush w/ degreaser??
2. How to remove the old paint?
3. What primer (if any) and paint (best color match & for temperature) should be used & who carries it?
4. Do I just tape the top of the case fins or sand off excess paint after spraying it (or both)?
5. Is there a protective coating that would go over the unfinished aluminum & new red paint after?
6. Any thing else I should do while the plenum is off & I'm fixing my coolant leak?

Thanks for the help!

Brad in NH

 

Years ago there was a thread on this (328 too) with pictures. Do a search.

 

As I like to end these threads when the job is complete here is what was done;

Coolant Leak-
The hose from the expansion tank to the aluminum fitting under the plenum was rotted & fitting corroded. With no luck for a similar fitting w/ metric thread & as I wanted to get the car back together I made a new one w/ the screw machine I have access to. I kept the metric thread & tapped the ID, drilled out the tapped the OD of a 3/8" aluminum rod & fit them together. I think with the slightly increased wall thickness it should be better than new & last another 19 years (see attached PIC).

Plenum repaint-
As the plenum is not easy to remove now was the time to paint it. Rather than matching the crackle paint finish with a color off from the original one I matched the color & left most of the original paint finish. Brushed / picked off all the loose paint & after spaying it has the crackle look, right color, & you can not see when I removed the loose paint. I used Plasti-Kote paint color Poppy Red (darker red)...see PICs.

The car is back together for daily driving & looking better than I bought it.

Brad in NH
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Looks very nice.

BTW, Eastwood's 'bright red' wrinkle powder is a very good match to the original finish on the QV & 328 plenums. We did JWise's plenum last year & was surprised how good the match was.

Now if I can just find time to pull my plenum & redo it.

 

Yep- it worked out nicely.

Before and after pix:
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