Just felt like tossing some pics up of a little project that I decided to take on.
They were all taken with my Blackberry which happens to take pretty much the shittiest pictures known to man, I probably would have been better off drawing you guys pictures with Crayons.

The valve cover had been painted by one of the two previous owners and the paint was cracking and chipping. I decided to do something about it. I wanted to go with a flat/semi-gloss valve cover with anodized blue looking writing. However, the paint did not hold up on the writing so I had to sand it off and decided to leave it polished.

On to the pics...

Pulling the valve cover


The Paint Stripper


The Stripper Doing It's Thing (Easy Fellas)


Almost Paint Free


Scrubbing Her Clean With Hot Soap & Water


Once clean I sanded the valve cover with 400 grit up to 800 to promote adhesion. I sprayed compressed air through the baffles in the valve cover to remove any remaining water that might have been left over. Then I wet sanded the writing on the valve cover up to 2000 grit to get that brilliant shine. This guaranteed you would not see any casting from the factory and I hoped it would really allow the Metalcast Blue Anodized Look paint to shine.

Applying The Blue Metalcast


Next I let the blue Metalcast paint setup and applied several coats until I was happy with coverage. Then I allowed the paint to dry thoroughly before taping off the writing.

All Writing Taped Off, Now I Start Trimming Around The Writing


More Tedious Trimming...It's a Long Procedure!


Once it's all taped off and the tape around the writing is trimmed I lay down the flat/semi-gloss. I wasn't sure how flat the paint would be as I used BBQ Enamel...It came out a bit glossier that I had expected, but I'm still happy with it.



After allowing ample time for the paint to dry I began removing the tape from the letters. This is when I realized that perhaps wetsanding the writing to a fine polish with 2000 grit may have made them too smooth, not allowing the Metalcast to properly adhere. The anodized blue look I was going for on the letters had failed. So I used a blade and removed the chipped blue paint from the writing and sanded the writing lightly with 2000 grit to restore it's shine.



Valve Cover Painted with Spark Plug Cover Reinstalled


I also sanded and sprayed the brass coloured washers and "hat nuts" with the Metalcast for that anodized look. The spark plug cover came on the car with an anodized blue finish.

This last picture captures the finished product. My brother snapped it with his phone, which takes a nicer pic than my phone.

 

not bad

 

Doesn't look bad man. Too bad the blue didn't turn out.

 

looks good

 

It's not exactly what I was going for, to be honest I wanted the black to be flatter. Like chalkboard flat. It's cool though, it was a learning experience and the old one was way too much red for a green car! I'm a little disappointed that the blue didn't work out on the writing, but it still looks better that it did when I bought the car. I'm slowly transforming this car to "my car". Now I just need to do something about the 5 shocker stickers around the car...

 

Thanks man, I just checked the one you're selling in your sig...You did a nice job!

 

Thanks man. Painting is a hobby of mine.

 

It shows!

 

looks killer bro.. i decided to repaint mine the other day... and it was alot of tedious cutting

 

came out really nice

oh and instead of tapeing off the letters you could rub chapstick on them, and clean off the excess. Then after the paint dries just wipe/scrap off the chapstick, the paint on the letters will come off with it

 

vasoline works the same way

 

you should have sanded the lettering with 400 grit, 2000 is way too fine for any paint to adhere to, 800 was the highest id use when prepping for a blend, anything higher is for wetsanding and buffing

 

When I do mine, I primer, then sand with 800. Then spray color.

 

Looks good.

 

Looks bad *** man!!!

 

also for the metalcast stuff to give you the proper color it says on the can that you need to use there metalcast chrome basecoat. without it the color just won't look right.

 

looks great

 

Of course they are going to tell you that...They want your money! LOL.
I've seen this stuff work marvelously with no Metalcast Chrome Basecoat applied. It didn't take me long to realize that 2000 grit was overboard. I was trying to get all of the little imperfections out of the writing and produce the most brilliant shine that I could. Lesson learned...

To the dude with the Rising Sun painted on the valve cover...It looks sick...nice job.

As far as the chap stick/vaseline trick, I tried that on the "H" emblem and the Honda Motor Co. writing but I used marine grease because it was the closest thing I had at the shop. Didn't work as well as I wanted...
In the end I'm happy with how it looks.

 

i can tell you from personal experience it does not work without the basecoat. i didn't realize it was needed till after when i was wondering why the hell the color looked like a flat gloss instead of shiney metallic.

 

thanks bro it took some time but i think it was worth it

 

[QUOTE=ek_jap;42160289]vasoline works the same way[/QUOTE

Yes it does for sure