Alright I just took some time and cleaned up my engine bay a bit so it wouldn't look so much like crap anymore. Stupid me, having owned the car since April of 07 and I've never given the bay a good cleaning resulted in lots of dirt and grime and other things to be cleaned off. I got it looking as best as I could on the stuff I could reach, but now I have questions.

Here's what the whole thing looks like right now, trust me it's way better than what it was:


But as I was cleaning all the crap off of everything, I realized this stuff will not come off at all:


Has my lack of cleaning in the engine bay permanently screwed up the looks of my engine, or can that be removed somehow? I cleaned by spraying Simple Green Max on everything and wiping off with a wet rag, worked great on everything but those stupid specks. Would an SOS pad help take that off or do I need to get more drastic? Any advice is appreciated.

On another note, I also cleaned up the engine bay in my Sunbird, which has never been thoroughly cleaned at all before. I've never seen the red look so bright and vibrant before.

 

I had that on mine and got it looking like this. just buy a sanding sponge with very small grain and sand it off and also buy "never dull" its in a silver can. the gets rid of it and polishes it really well. It takes alot of elbow grease but its worth it.