At the risk of creating a very m.net type thread, I wanted to share pics of my cam cover I just got done cleaning up. I didn't take any pics until the end, but for the way it started, imagine the ugliest, darkest, dirtiest a cam cover could look.

Procedure:
Liberal application of brake cleaner, wipe with rag
Thorough cleaning in parts washer with mineral spirits and wire brushes
Dry with compressed air
Blast cabinet, spray with glass beads at low pressure
2nd application of brake cleaner and wipe with rag
Black primer
Black spray paint
real quick wet sand
Black spray paint
Black texture paint x2
Remove paint from raised letters with fine grinding stone on cordless drill
Replace grinding stone with high grit (count unknown) sanding drum
Finish with polishing cookie on air rotary to polish letters
Masking tape carefully over letters
Final, quick coat of black texture to cover the areas that were accidently bumped in the polishing process

Result



It looks pretty damn good in person, much better than the .jpg's reveal. The "flaws" are shadows or flash reflections or weird cheapie digital cam artificats.
The only thing I'd do differently if done again is I would only apply 1 coat of black texture before the grinding/polishing process.

 

Looks great! Someday I'll clean mine.

 

Looks great! Is that a spare or is the engine out?

 

Thanks.
That's a 1.8 motor. Car's fine.

 

Wow! If I send you a 1.6, will you do it for me?

 

looks very nice. I plan on doing that with satin black. Im thinking of what color i want the lettering to be.

 

You can see mine painted in my pic link. I didn't bother to mask the letters, but thats the look I was going for.

 

What paint did you guys use, I need to do mine again lol.

 

Looks good man, i like brushed letters like that.

 

It's really pretty easy to brush the letters. Obviously, the only cavet is you'd want to go in one direction. I actually got a little carried away and polished them, when I should have stopped.

Bruce, I can spray a cover for you. Of course, your 1.6 cover will have the concave lettering, so they can't be brushed.

 

That looks really sharp. What paint did you use?

 

you can paint them with some silver like FM does, it looks pretty sharp

 

looks good. I had some metalic black paint that i used once. Came out really nice.

 

WoW !

 

the FM paint is like $80/can. It's re-branded krylon.

 

FM has paint and someone buys it?

 

why wouldn't they.

 

yeah, the tech support is great!

 

My 1.6 cover is black with red painted recessed letters. I was thinking about sprucing it up a bit too. I was actually considering spraying it black again and dripping red melted wax into the concave lettering. I don't know if it would turn out good or not, but the idea is that the letters could be made flush to the top surface of the cover, but would be red.

 

Thats what ROmank did and it was pretty cool, I think im gonna do silver with black lettering.