Valve Cover Candy - Redux page 2

[1st 5er]

Continued niceness!

[beanzermin]

damn that looks good definitly one of my next mods

[Nanajoth]

That looks very, very good. I think I will do this to mine also.

[Dinan e28]

Here is my project, fresh from the powder coater.
Ported Dinan intake and my backup valve cover. Ill probably do my polished valve cover too.

[Dinan e28]

Here is my project, fresh from the powder coater.
Ported Dinan intake and my backup valve cover. Ill probably do my polished valve cover too.

The valve cover is still covered in plastic.

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Here is my project, fresh from the powder coater.
Ported Dinan intake and my backup valve cover. Ill probably do my polished valve cover too.

The valve cover is still covered in plastic.

Looks the goods, did you consider polishing the raised castings?

[Dinan e28]

I did it on my polished valve cover. The powder coater recommended doing it before powder coating.

You cant really tell in the pic.

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

I did it on my polished valve cover. The powder coater recommended doing it before powder coating.

You cant really tell in the pic.

Yeah, with my valve cover i prepped the raised sections the same as i did the rest of the piece, and the paint was a bit of a bitch to remove clean/straight. With the plenum i polished those bits before painting, and it was a lot easier to remove the paint afterward, back to the polished finish. And yes, you're right. Can't really tell. Looks very nice nevertheless!

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Got bored of the regular valve cover, so I refinished and installed this one.




Due to the surface having rather pronounced pitting, I only polished up the text. I'll eventually have the thing skimmed at a machine shop, and will polish up the stripes too, but for now I'm happy with it.

[grey ghost]

Looks great.
I plan on redoing mine in the same red.
As you know or may have read, the hard time I had with my build required me to have the valve cover off many times thus killing the finish.
There are oil smudges on it all over.
Suffice to say it doesn't look like this anymore.
I have an attraction to red stuff under the hood.
Seeing how great yours looks after sanding the raise areas, I will be doing that for sure next time.....

[BDKawey]

The wrinkle paint with the sanding looks ticka ticka tighttt. Haha nice job

[L_N_Love]

Due to the surface having rather pronounced pitting, I only polished up the text. I'll eventually have the thing skimmed at a machine shop, and will polish up the stripes too, but for now I'm happy with it.

I think it looks cool as is. Good job!

[Slow_Ballin']

That looks freaking awesome! I did my valve cover not too long ago but now I wanna touch up some other areas too!

Great motivation.

[jamezilla]

The Hartge one looks great Bob!

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Cheers fellas. I'm quite pleased with it. Now to throw that intake in the bin, and clean up the wiring a lil more..

[OcCoupe]

Bob, you inspired me to do this to my e12 so I decided to have myself a bbq this morning!

[1st 5er]

Looks like there's more than one way to cook a cover. Well done sir! (puns intended)

[genzox]

[JSimmons]

Wow, that wrinkle finish came out really well. It almost has an OEM look to it.

Great job!

[Owndapwn]

Hate to necro such an old thread (I lie. It doesn't bother me at all) but I just wanted to thank the OP for his brief write-up.
I'll probably do this when I pull my head for rebuild later in the summer when I just have to leave it on south-side patio for it to bake.
Won't actually do that, but I don't doubt it'd work. At 95F air temp in full sun, the blacktop is pushing 140-150F. Drop it out in the morning, pick it up at night cured.

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Glad to have been of assistance/inspiration. I've got a small pit hole leaking oil through the wrinkle coat (which had held up perfectly since day one mind you, but after a small oil filled bubble appeared it's clear it needs attention), so will be repeating this again at some point soon. Just have to figure out how to repair the pitting in the surface first.

[Owndapwn]

Leaking around the base of the cover? Like from around the cam cover gasket?
See if a shop will machine the gasket for you for a couple bucks and grab a new gasket. There shouldn't be any paint coming in contact with the gasket, I'd imagine..

[Das_Prachtstrasse]

Leaking around the base of the cover? Like from around the cam cover gasket?
See if a shop will machine the gasket for you for a couple bucks and grab a new gasket. There shouldn't be any paint coming in contact with the gasket, I'd imagine..

Not quite. There are pinholes all over the valve cover from corrosion which was why I only polished up the Hartge lettering in the first place. One of those pinholes must actually penetrate through the cover, so a tiny amount of oil weeps out under the wrinkle coating. I only noticed as I was studying how the coating had held up over time and saw the little bubble. After lancing it with a needle, a tiny amount of oil wept out. We're talking an eyedropper amount over the course of the last 4 years or however long it's been since it's been on the car, so it's not a great issue although it is lifting the wrinkle coating. When the new engine is finished and it comes time to re-paint the valve cover, I'll either fill and sand the entire surface with aluminium putty which will hopefully polish up well (and fill the pinholes), or just leave it as polished lettering only if I'm not happy.

[Coldswede]

You know Christian, 200*F is not very hot. You could build a plywood box big enough to fit your needs for the service your planning, insulate it with fiberglass and put a thermostat in it. You could use a hot plate or even a Halogen spot light for heat, just hook it in line with the thermostat.(get a line voltage T-stat).

Your a smart guy you could iron out any small details

[tig]

M20, smooth semi-gloss powder:



M30B35, wrinkle powder: