Supplies:
Spare Valve Cover (Mine was sohc as you'll see in the pics)
Paint Stipper-Auto Strip is what I used from Autozone, $5
Steel Wool- I got a 3 pack with 3 different grades of roughness
Sand Paper- 220 grit, 400 grit, 800 grit should be enough for ya.
Self Etching Primer
Standard Grey Primer
High Temp Engine Paint- I used Red
High Temp Engine Clear Coat
*Plastic Scraper- Can be used to get the original paint off the VC.
Rag you dont care throwing away
Alright, these are the steps as I went about it.
1)
Tape off the oil fill hole on the top of the VC. You can take out the spark plug gaskets cuz you'll most likely want to replace them anyway after this is done.
2)
Take the VC and set it on a piece of cardboard or piece of wood. Get in a well ventilated area and spray the hell outa the valve cover with the Paint Stripper you chose. Let it sit and bubble for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour. After it ahs set, take yout palstic scraper adn scrape away. You'll get alot of big strips of paint off but dont get too excited. This is the real fun. You may have to use the paint stripped 3 or 4 more times and these times you need to use the steel wool pads. I used the Medium grade for it being Aluminum. The carcks around the holes for the bolts are the hardest areas to work. Just scrape and scrub with the scraper and the wool until all is removed. And after clean it with rubbing alcohal or whatever. This will keep bits and pieces of the paint from getting into your primer and giving you bumps.(I skipped this step, not thinking)
It should look something like this:
3)Next is Primering. After rubbing the VC with the mediium grade steel wool, the VC should be roughed out enough for primer. Get out your Self Etching Primer. Mine was green so dont be worried about the color. Coat it with 2-3 light coats, so everything gets covered nicey. After that, get out the 800 grit Sand paper and rough it up a tad bit, but not enough to go through the primer. If you go through the primer, you'll have to recoat it.
Self Etching Primer:
Once sanded, coat it with 2-3 coats of the Universal Grey Primer. Once it's covered completely, do the same as the last time. Sand it down a tad bit, just enough so it feels rough and a little scratched up. Remember 800 grit or 400 grit is the roughest you want to go here. Do not go through the primers and have to start over. Dont ever use pressure when sanding here.
The grey primer sanded:
4)
Now the real paint. Remember when paining, try to be in a well ventialted area. And make sure it's warm where your painting so you get the optimal look of the paint. Since all the primer is set up and layered, put a light basecoat on of the High Temp Red. Just enough to cover most of everything, cuz once the paint starts to run, your screwed. Once dry add about 4 more decent coats of red on it, all light so no running occurs. Once you get your shade of red you want to achieve it should look like this
5)
Now you make a choice. Polished letters or AS-IS. I went polished letters with mine. To poilish the letters I first used 220 grit sand paper to get most the paint of the letters. Once most paint is gone, I went to 400 grit then to 800 grit and once enough work is applied you can easily get polish look you want. After that, put a few coats of clear coat on it and your done. If you didnt go for the polished letters look, just put 2-3 coats of clear on it and call it a day.
Congradulations, you just made your self a nice look valve cover that all the ricer boys and your fellow neon enthusiests will like. Fell free to post pics of your finished products in this thread to show how well this process works.
