Nucking Futz

Sorry for the HUGE pics guys I dont know how to resize them ?

OK so I am in the process of cleaning up the engine bay in my honda del sol si.. And I figured no better place to start is with a fresh valve cover .. After sitting around for days thinking about what color I wanted to do I finally decided on Red wrinkle paint.. So here's your DIY

Parts needed :

VHT or Krylon red wrinkle paint ( I used VHT )

Valve cover

Painters tape or duct tape ( I used both )

Sand paper ( I used 150, 320, 600 )

Oven ( optional )

Razor blades

New gasket kit ( also optional )

10mm socket and ratchet wrench

To pull the valve cover all the bolts " should be " 10mm the single cams only has 5 bolts that need to be removed

Ok so my valve cover was in pretty rough shape. Here it is as soon as I pulled it from the motor



So the first thing you need to do is clean it up with warm water and soap, also now is a good time to take the spark plug seals out if your replacing ( I did ).. And after its cleaned up start sanding. Start with the 150 grit getting all the big knicks and scratches out, then gradually work your way up to the finer grit ( 600 ) to smooth everything out.. Remember the more prep work you do before paint the better the final product will be..

So here it is all sanded down and taped up and ready to go ( I used duct tape on this because the blue painters tape didnt really work here )



Now time too paint, holding the can 8-10 inches away spray even coats I used 4 coats with a 3 minute break in between each coat ( this is up to you how many coats you want ) 1st coat I did was horizontal, 2nd coat was vertical, 3rd coat I did diagonal, and final coat was horizontal again.. ( remember 3 minutes in between...)

heres after the paint



Now find a spot to store the cover for about 12 hours for the paint to dry I had my in my room with a fan on it for the 12 hours..

Here's what it looks like after the 12 hours



Now CAREFULLY remove the tape and pre heat your oven to 200 degrees ( like I said this is optional ) and put it in the oven at 200 for about 20 minutes



Be careful removing it from the oven to not scratch it.. And let it cool ALL the way down and start taping around the " H " symbol and " vtec " symbol (here I used the blue painters tape)



and in the same sequence start sanding the letters to get the paint off and shine it on up.. ( start with 150 then 320 then the 600 ) and after the sanding is done carefully remove the tape and it should look like this



Now its finished and if you bought a new valve cover gasket set now is the time to install them like I did ( valve cover gasket, spark plug tube seals, and grommets for the top bolts ) and install on the motor and bolt everything down( 10mm bolts ) and here ya go..... B)



I know I know its a dirty *** engine bay im workin on it fella's :D next I think will be a wire tuck

ENJOY............

Linked

good diy, i heard that rubbing something thick like vaseline before you start painting and then removing it before putting it in the oven will get the job done

Nucking Futz

Thanks man, yeah I've also heard of people doing that but I just think it would be a little too messy lol it wasn't too much work just re-sanding the letter's but to each their own I guess

PS- Can someone help me resize the images please

DSMAddicted

Nice work buddy, came out great.
I would have washed the engine before putting in the new valve cover, but if you're careful you should still be able to wash/degrease it without damaging the shiny (or should I say 'wrinkled') red addition.

I resized your pics and I am ready to email them to you. PM me your email.

-Walter

PS= for the future, download GIMP and resize following this. Searching YouTube for "how to resize gimp" will yield good video tutorials as well.

dsnONE

Sick VC man.. I didnt think i would find this but this is exactly the DIY i was looking for because i just got a D15B vtec and i wanna do the same thing!!

OmgDelSol

I'm about to do this on my b16 sol is there anything i should worry about when taking my VC off? Except for the pattern you remove the bolts? That's the only thing i could find on how to remove the valve cover. Also my #4 bolt is broken it seems. How hard is it to replace?

dsnONE

it never matters what order you take the vc bolts off, only head bolts....

DSMAddicted

It doesn't hurt to follow an even pattern, but as mentioned it's not as crucial as when you're removing the head. What you need to be careful with is when you put it back. The torque is extremely low and it is ridiculously easy to crack a valve cover if you tighten one or more bolts too much. Search around and you'll find the exact torque for the VC nuts and a suggested order for tightening.

Shouldn't be too bad. Once you remove the VC you should have enough bolt sticking out to carefully loosen it with some pliers and unscrew by hand. Buy an OEM replacement stud from the stealership (probably a buck or two).

Buy a new valve cover gasket and spark plug rings and replace it when you put the painted VC back. It's only a few bucks.