Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Damn, Machismo it looks to me like your engine bay is fireproof..

thesnowboarder

iTrader: (15)

How did you go about "polishing" the letters?

Wire brushed after it being fully dry? Sanded by hand? Looks very precise with not mistakes, looks good!

patsmx5

iTrader: (16)

Trade secret, sorry. My tuner would be offended if I released this information...

J/K. It's a technique you can use to surface ANYTHING dead flat within .002" or better depending on how you do it. Enough that you can surface your own turbo flanges and things like that.

You wrap a piece of sand paper around something really REALLY flat. Like a 1" thick chunk of glass. Then keep it square to the work and make passes to surface it. For valve covers, I used a piece of 1" thick MDF and wrap 100 grit sand paper around it. And make "light" passes as the wood will bend if you put much pressure. For sanding a head for a small engine, I use a flat piece of granite. Again, very little pressure or you will distort the granite or whatever you're using.

I will say doing the lines is very difficult. The polished lettering is cake compared to the lines. To get the lines you have to polish them, then cut strips of tape and cover up the lines, then prime, paint, and remove the tape after ~2 days of letting the final layer of paint cure.

EDIT: like this:

thesnowboarder

iTrader: (15)

Hummm, the lines look real nice, i may have to try that

johndoe

iTrader: (5)

it takes a lot of time and a lot of wet sanding. I still have to finish up my protege cover. Gave up half way through a month ago. Should be done in a couple days though, slightly different color than others here.

scottv

iTrader: (3)

No pics, but it turned out AWESOME....I washed down the cover using paint thinner and a brown 3M brillo type pad...then let dry...I then sprayed 3 coats of Krylon Wrinkle black paint waiting about 5 minutes between coats...it's good to build up the coats of paint so it can "wrinkle"...THEN put it out in the hot sun which really helped with the "wrinkling". The final result looked like it came from the factory-the wrinkle coating turned out WAY better than I anticipated considering it came out of a $6 can. Only problem is now my intake manifold looks like crap next to the newly painted valve cover.

thesnowboarder

iTrader: (15)

ok, so i did the wrinkly paint job on my 90 original motor and after about a year or so the heat began to chip off.

What are you guys doing for longevity? Any layers of high temp clear coat? Special "high temp" wrinkle paint? On my old valve cover i used high temp primer but no clear coat, im thinking that might be my problem.

Edit:
Here is a picture for reference

Notice the bottom right side of the valve cover beginning to chip. This is about 1.5 years old of a paint job. Used basically the same method as everyone else.

m2cupcar

iTrader: (5)

If it's chipping off then it's an adhesion issue with the cam cover. Whether that's because of the primer or the heat I don't know. I can say that I used primer with high temp paint and it wouldn't stick. Without and it worked far better.

Yes- a genuine Mazda FE

Pseudosport

iTrader: (9)

Another way to make it easier to mask the lines is just put the tape down and let it over hang what you are trying to mask. Then take a small hammer or just anything metal or solid and tap along the edge lightly enough so that it cuts through the tape. You can also try running something metal up along the edge. This will also cut through the tape. I find this much faster then cutting strips of tape and gives you cleaner paint lines.

240_to_miata

iTrader: (2)

i just painted my valve cover then took a line sander with some 80 grit to get most of it off, then carefully used my DA with 180 i believe, then hand sanded with some higher grit..

the line sander worked great!
sorry no pics.

btw.. stock 1.8 valve cover

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

mine looked good the first day I painted it:

Machismo

iTrader: (1)

It is overkill, and some of it has been deleted. Did save my butt a while back when I lost two o-rings on the injectors.

levnubhin

iTrader: (30)

Shitty pic but you get the idea.


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thesnowboarder

iTrader: (15)

My contribution:
Black "crinkle" powder coating

hustler

iTrader: (6)

yeah, because if your valve cover is getting over 220*, you have other problems much more severe with the stuff inside.

99NBMia

iTrader: (6)

Much easier to sand the letters with finishing with fine grit sandpaper prior to paint. Then apply chapstick or some other substance to keep the paint from sticking to that part, then paint and wipe away the area with the substance. Then just let dry and polish.

here is mine currently powder coated black with gold flake

Along with my upper portion Intake manifold

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

Doing the stripes is SUPER easy. Just paint the valve cover how you want, let paint dry, put some masking tape over the whole stripe area, and sand away. I've done a dozen of them this way with no problems. The tape comes right off where you put pressure on it, and protects the other areas from small rubs and bumps. I'd post a picture because I have one sitting right next to me half sanded and you can see what I mean... but you ******* can figure it out on your own.

chriscar

iTrader: (24)

This one is still in a box in my garage.

C

Doppelgänger

iTrader: (12)

OK, so I finally took a picture of my custom creation. I mixed Metalcast smoke and blue and got this disco color-changing grey to blue flipflip effect. I used just the smoke on the VVT solenoid and polished the oil feed line.





and here is the Protoge one I just did... (for sale)

samnavy

iTrader: (7)

Did it at the same time as my COP's conversion, and painted the hold-down bar to match.

Paint: whatever the standard black crinkle stuff is from Autozone... Duplicolor? I rough sanded and then wet-sanded... 1 coat, perfect.