So I want to dress up my D16 a little. I went to the junk yard yesterday and got a used valve cover off a 97 Civic LX sedan. 20 bucks for the valve cover and I'm having it sand blasted this afternoon for 15. I want to paint it "jdm red". Anybody have any input as far as what type of paint I should get?
Should I primer it first?
I don't have a spray gun so I will be limited to spray-bomb, I'm good though

I saw some videos of people using some kind of paint you have to bake (powder coat in a can?)
I'll throw up some pictures of my little project later. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I haven't done it yet, but there are quite a few DIYs, some people primer others don't, if you're sand blasting then IDK that you would have to. VHT wrinkle red seems to be popular, when using wrinkle paint you have to bake it, so I think thats what you're seeing
more here http://www.hondaclub.com/forum/artic...-painting.html

others who have done it may have better advice

 

Cool man thanks, Can the wrinkle paint be purchased at Advanced or Auto-Zone?
What about the inside of the cover, I cleaned it out with some degreaser. I'm obviously not going to paint on the inside.
Any thoughts?

 

I know autozone has black IDK about red, I don't have an advanced near me, but orileys should have it too

 

Here are a couple of picts so far. I have a couple questions if anyone could help,

1. Would it matter if I get the gasket from honda dealership, or would it be ok to get from napa or advanced?
2. I saw that the gasket kits come with the seals for the plugs, are they hard to take out and install the new ones? Should I not replace them if they are ok?
3. If I decide to bake after I paint, would I need to remove the plug seals?

 

I used self-etch primer for mine before I painted it and it worked out great!

 

I used to do electro-static painting and always used acid etch primer to when painting aluminum. Good stuff. I think I'm just going to paint though. I had it sand blasted yesterday! Looks good.
To bake or not to bake, that is the question!
Also still not sure about the following. Sorry for being such a noob.
1. Would it matter if I get the gasket from honda dealership, or would it be ok to get from napa or advanced?
2. I saw that the gasket kits come with the seals for the plugs, are they hard to take out and install the new ones? Should I not replace them if they are ok?
3. If I decide to bake after I paint, would I need to remove the plug seals?

 

You should be fine getting a gasket from napa or advanced autoparts. Just make sure you put liquid gasket sealer on both sides of it when you put it back on.

 

You ever smelled burnt rubber?

 

Hahah. Will remove if I decide to bake.

 

Dude,
Where are you located? I strongly recommend to get it powdercoated. Painting it will take so much longer and will not last as long as powdercoat.

If you are either in South Florida or Atlanta I can hook you up with two powdercoating places.
BTW, the process of powdercoating usually includes sandblasting, so you may want to hold off on that.

Most valve covers can be powdercoated for around $40-60 (without covering lettering).

You can pick the colour from here: www.powderbuythepound.com

Here are some examples my friend did: http://superiorpowdercoatings.com/examples.html

Good luck,

-Walter

 

took me about an hour and a half from start to finish to prep and lay down four coats of paint on mine... how would sending it out for powdercoat be any faster? and i've got six years/150k miles on one and 2 years/20k miles on the other, they still look new (when they're clean...). and it cost me about $9 each.

i'm not saying powdercoating is no good. of course it is. and, i'm not saying that paint will last as long as powdercoating. it probably won't. but who keeps the same motor much longer than 6 years..? on a show car or something, sure.. but just to dress up the motor on a daily $50 seems like a waste.

 

I used to do Electro-static painting and powder coating for 6 years. The whole idea of this was to DIY. I already paid for sand blasting and paint. I am confident in my painting skills and feel I got this covered. You are right about Powder Coating, it is the most durable.
Thank you guys for your advice.

 

It's nice that you managed to pull off proper valve cover painting in such short amount of time. I've painted a handful of valve covers in the past (primed and baked in oven, high temp paint and all) and was never too happy with the longevity and toughness of the final product. It is also much harder to chip or scratch a powdercoated surface. But glad it has worked out for you man, I am sure this is one of those rewarding jobs that put a smile on your face everytime you pop the hood.

Sounds like you got everything under control. Good luck with the project and post pics of the final product!

-Walter

 

Will do Walt, thanks!

 

Valve cover gasket w/plug seals and grommets. 46.99$ from dealership! Guess I'm going with Fellpro, 15$ from Nappa
I cant justify spending that much money on a gasket. I want all oem stuff, but at these prices I'm gonna have to go with the alternate.

 

Don't worry... VC gasket is no biggie. Other things like timing belt, water pump etc I wouldn't get anything other than OEM, those are another story.

-Walter

 

First few coats,





1hr later.





Will post more later.

 

nice

 

Looks badass man, if the paint holds for a few years you've gotten yourself a sweet addition to your engine bay while having fun doing it.

Waiting for 'installed product' pics.

-Walter

 

So far the biggest pain in the *** has been the trying to seat the plug seals in good, and the GROMMETS! I included some pictures of how I got the grommets on. I'm sure everyone has there own method. I used a deep well ratchet, lube, and a rubber mallet.
Walt, hopefully going to put it on tomorrow and Ill through up picts.

 

what did you use to clean the lettering off? dremel?

 

Razor blade then just some sand paper.

 

Now that sounds like dedication. Looks good, sir!

 

thanks