DIY Valve Cover Painting
 

When i first bought my car in September the valve cover looked terrible because the old paint was all peeling off. I brought it to my friends garage and used a dremel tool and sanded the whole thing down to bare metal. I then sanded the whole thing down with 180 grit sandpaper to remove some of the scuffs and scratches, then with 400 grit to smooth it out even more. I then sanded it with wet dry sandpaper which made it completly smooth and mint looking. I went to napa and bought 1200 degree F. heat paint for 10 bucks a can. I undid the 4 10mm screws to remove the valve cover. also remove the spark plug wiring, two grounds and a clip for the throttle cable. I took it off gently trying not to wreck the rubber gasket. Once i took it off i brought it to my paint room. Cleaned it all off and sprayed a thin coat of heat paint across the whole thing. waited 15 minutes and did another complete coat. Altogether i did 4 coats. It turned out pretty well. Looks much better than when i bought it and cost approx. 15 bucks. I also painted my header with the same black paint as well and they look good too.

pics would be awesome

nice job. just a heads up for anyone using high temp paint, the stuff runs a lot easier than most paints. use light coats!

^very true, thats probably why that cranked the price to 10 bucks a can:D

i like to cover the words (DOHC VTEC or the "H" or whatever your valve cover says) with either a light coat of vasoline or tape to keep them from getting covered with paint. IMO the bright shiny letters look pimp against the fresh (whatever colour) paint.
You can use automotive paint stripper if you don't feel like going over the valve cover with a grinder/sandpaper for an hour.

hmm never thought about that^, i painted right over the lettering but i planned on painting it by hand later with a bright color.

im going 2 try that now il make a writeup

ok valve cover painting with paint stripper
 

ok so this is kinda a part 2 from another thread were the guy used a dremle 2 grind all the paint off


i bet that took 4 ever :)




ok here goes

go 2 crappy tire and get paint remover 1 can make shure its 4 metal :) and automotive paint most of them are


Attachment 42554

and some latex gloves


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put the valve cover on some old wood or some carbboard box

just so u dont get this crap allover somethin nice :)

and then spray an even cote allover the thing from all angles and in all the holes and crevices

Attachment 42556


i waited about 10 mins and 2 my suprise it was done i thaught it would take longer


put the gloves and and get a scaper

i like this 1 because it has all the nice angles on it 4 the holes

Attachment 42557


then scrape it off u dont need 2 push very hard at all it just falls off

[window]s2.photobucket.com/albums/y13/doggy69247/?action=view&current=MOV01435.flv[/window]


once u have it all off then u may notice some tiny little bits that dident quite make it off so i did a 2nd cote just 2 be totaly shure and the 2nd time i got an old toothbrus and rubed at the black specks that were left and now its paint free

Attachment 42558

then i got a wire brush wheel and started 2 kinda polish the surface up allittle



the discolouration in the aluminun is from the weather and water geting through the origonal paint


Attachment 42552

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it made it somewhat shiny very easy





i love purple so i got some nice candy purple paint i forgot 2 take a pick of the paint il do that later


1 cote

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1...7/DSC01442.jpg


2 cotes

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1...7/DSC01443.jpg


3 cotes

https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1...7/DSC01445.jpg




i know its a crappy spray bob there was like 30 seckods between coats this was just playing around seing what colour it wil turn out


what do u guys think ?? im thinking 5 or 6 coted so its nice and deep purple

Looks good!


Looks like you are getting alot of overspray, try keeping the bottle at least a foot away.

yeah i see your spraying too much at once there are some drips. very nice colour!

Practice makes perfect. Otherwise I think it will look good. Can we see the car it is going on?

its going in a stock looking ef :)

nothing exighting


yea i know about the overstray it was just 2 see what colour it would turn out

ok threads merged, thanks for the pics and video doggy!

yea good idea mergeing the thread s :)


im working nights so it wil be 4 more days until i can do any more :) il post the rest of the pix


BUT WARNING 1 thing i noticed is that the wire brush if the wire is hard it wil actualy gouge lines in the solf aluminum so i am curently useing sandpaper until i can find a better faster way:)

ok i did some more today sorry the pix are **** i used my phone


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...7/DSC00415.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y13...7/DSC00413.jpg



im going 2 sand it all down again some dush fel on the top :( i duno if the paint was dry or not so mabie it stuck hopefully it wil wipe off



im going 2 sand off the honda synble and then put some clear kote on it so the weather cant carode the aluminum

great job man, looks amazing

How bad dose the paint stripper smell? Should this be something done out side???.....if done inside (say in an apt.) iam i going to passout from fumes?

Anyone have an answer??? :listen:

Dogggy, nicely done my friend, very impressed!


:thumbup: