I've got a 2.5 WRX Hawkeye that's having the engine out soon to fix an oil leak and do some upgrades. What are the best/ most visible hoses and parts you can swap out to give the engine bay a bit more colour?

Do Samco do a complete set of colour hoses? As everything I've seen so far are all individuals.

 

Hit a pigeon at speed. It gets sucked in the vent and explodes. All the colour you need 😉

Yes samco do a full kit

 

It’s a very “bitty” engine. Purely my opinion/ what I did but I’d look at changing the intake hoses and intercooler to tb hose and maybe the pulley cover. personally I think the full kits just look like a load of hoses chucked in randomly - but have a look at some pictures and see what you like.

 

Do you have any pics of yours at all?

 

I regret putting colour into my bay; reds end up different tones and I haven't found Samco to be any better than oem. It's alot of money for a look .

Red doesn't go with yellow at all.

 

I think that looks good, my car is Silver so could carry any colour quite easily. Where did you get the Perrin Slam panel from?

 

You can get things like air intake ducts, pulley covers, fuse box covers etc hydro-dipped, just a thought.

All sorts of effects and colours including carbon fibre effect available in the hydro-dipping market. However, if you went down this route, be sure to research into how well it lasts / holds up etc as it is a very thin film and may well be quite expensive to get it done.
Plenty on YouTube about hydro-dipping and vinyl wrapping of various car parts / trim parts inside and out.

Another option would be to paint your inlet manifold, you can get crackle finish paint in a rattle can anywhere - ebay / Amazon and can look very OEM.

I just tend to clean my engine bay regularly and leave it as it is, I even paid strong money for a new Samco induction hose and chose the stealthy matt black finish, you can't even hardly see it as most of it is hidden under the inlet manifold lol

 

Can't remember where I got any cosmetics...I only buy at sales.
Remember, a full hose set means dismantling a hell of alot of ****.
Personally I think it's crazy to spend on colours that noone sees when you could rebuild suspension or uprate brakes. But if you've got money burning a hole in your pocket with the recession of the century looming, go for it!!

 

I've tried to keep mine reasonably simple with the boost solenoid and alternator covers and a few other bits, some can look too over the top in my opinion.

 

Hydro Dipping is a really good idea actually, I know a local place that does it so will give them a shout for some of the plastic bits. Thanks for the idea.

 

The engine is coming out for other work, hence why I'm considering this now to put parts on whilst the access is easy. I'm only looking to do parts that are visible anyway. I'm lucky to be in an industry that weathers recession quite well, so fortunately that isn't something I need to worry about too much.

 

That's really clean and smart, I like that. What Intercooler is that too? Looks a good alternative to the STI one.

 

Thank you, I wanted to keep it reasonably OEM looking (even down to the pipework I used for the Oil Catch Can), but just add a touch of colour to smarten it up a little. It's a Mishimoto Top Mount and I'm really pleased with its performance. It is heavier than the stock intercooler but seems to heat soak much less. Power wise the stock intercooler is pretty good, I just couldn't stand all the bent fins on mine so opted to replace it.

 

I'm with the "bitty" crowd... I like Kaosones engine bay the best: https://www.scoobynet.com/1055847-th...l#post12077867

 

I bought a red sticker kit (rad cap etc) , painted some parts wrinkle red (and some black so it matched but not overwhelmingly red) like the strut brace , intercooler and rad brackets, solenoid guard. Then the under bonnet bolt and washer kits were a subtle bit of colour . And obviously the Perrin stuff. Red hella horns with the black Perrin bracket but couldn't see them really.

 

You've done a really top job there 👌

 

Have a look at my project build post 774 there is a bit of colour

 

Hi. Loving the wrinkle paint. You got a link to the black you used?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251713042331
Not this seller but this is the paint.

 

 

Loving this thread. It's made me make my mind up on hoses and stick with black.

 

I went red and black.
That's one nice engine bay Dave

 

totally agree on the red pal but a great effort never the less

 

Samco 'classic black' sets are indistinguishable from OEM in looks with no logos either (on mine) but they don't add any colour !

 

I’ve added a few bits of colour under the bonnet that I’m pleased with!