Painting my engine bay, need some advice or expertise

[Markcuda]

I'm having my '69 Barracuda's engine bay painted before I drop in the 360/380 tire roasting, fire breathing, 5.0 eater crate motor. My question is, If you was to look thru the grills towards the motor, you would see the radiator, that flat piece of metal that the radiator bolts to, is that the same color as the engine bay or does that get painted black. I kind of want to keep the car looking like original. My quess is it would be the same color as the engine bay but then again, I don't know nothin'. Now the motor side of that piece of metal I am going to paint the same color as the engine bay. I'm just not sure about in front of the radiator. THank you very much for any advice in this matter.
Mark Smith

[amoparguy]

I'm not sure if the pre '70 Cudas are the same but '70 and up 'Cudas are blacked out from headlight bucket to headlight bucket below the core support cross piece (should remain body color) Looking through my assorted pictures from car shows, the '69 B-Bodies are also painted flat black behind the grille. It would be reasonably safe to assume that 'Cudas are painted the same way. My personal opinion? I think the black out paint behind the grille looks better than the body color does. (especially with lighter paint colors)

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my 2¢ worth...
amopargu

[Blaine Peterson]

I'm sure it should be blacked out. I think after the factory painted the body, they then used a flat or semi-gloss black paint to blackout the area behind the grille. Makes the grille look better.
Like amoparguy said, this piece should be body color on top, and of course on the engine side. But what you see through the grille should be blacked-out.

[chainlinkcuda]

the area behind the grill in front of the radiator was only painted black on light color cars, like yellow red ect, but if your car is say dark green, it may not be painted black.there is a list of what color cars had the black out area and wich didnt, but i cant remember where i say it, contact galien govier, leave a message they will set you straight for free,
good luck,
go mopar

[kdalters]

Chainlinkcuda is correct on this subject. Lighter colored cars had the blackout treatment behind the grills. Darker colored cars didn't need it as the body color didn't look so bad in this dark and desolate area. One of the Mopar specific magazines had an article about this very same subject awhile back ... maybe 6 months to a year ago. You might want to check some back issues on this.

[ChristianCuda]

My 68 With a light blue metallic had body color in the area behind the grills no blackout.

Christian