I'm about 8hrs into polishing my valve cover... what you see here is the following:

* 3-4 "sessions" of Aircraft Stripper
* 120 grit all around (by hand, small sanding block or w/piece of wood) dry sand
* 220 grit all around dry sand
* 220 grit wet sand
* 400 grit dry sand

I'm planning to do the following hopefully by tomorow:
* 400 wetsand
* 800 dry and wetsand
* 1000 dry/wet
* 1500 wetsand
* 2000 wetsand
* Mothers Mag/Aluminum Polish
* Hi-temp clearcoat

what do you guys think? i was wondering wether or not to clearcoat it.. what do you guys think?




oh, and if you guys are wondering about the center section, thats gonna be painted a gunmetallic color

 

looks pretty good

 

Actually, I like it raw satin finished just like that. Just orient all the sanding lines in 1 direction, scotch brite it, clear coat it and be done.

 

thats nice.. too bling bling IMO. stock black oem

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Boilermaker1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Actually, I like it raw satin finished just like that. Just orient all the sanding lines in 1 direction, scotch brite it, clear coat it and be done.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yea i like it too, it really shines *bLiNg* in the sun lol.. but i'm concentrating on the two flat spots to get it as close to mirror finish.. the harderst part was sanding down the rough texture to smooth using the 120 and 220 grit paper.. that took forever

 

a friend of mine did his sohc valve cover with some air craft stripper he got from walmart for like $8 with no sanding at all...took about 30 minutes and looks as good as that

 

Nice work....8 hrs is a long freakin time.

 

i'd like to see the finished pics...looks good so far. i have an extra cover laying around and i think that i might take on a similar project to keep me occupied over the winter.

 

tons of work here..

 

 

Dam dude. Your commited. Nice valve cover.

 

good job

 

ive never liked polished valve cover but yours looks like it might turn out nice

 

looks sweet man...you have patience..I cant even spend 8hrs swapping a motor lol

 

Dont clear coat it, your gonna get a different kind of shine if you do that, not a luster which you want after polishing.

You dont need to clear coat anyways because your not protecting any paint anyways

 

you can probly take it to a shop for 40-60 to have it polished, otherwise to get it like a mirror your gonna need a buffing wheel, and various compounds. Or even order a kit like this to save your self some work. Only drawback is you need a grinder to mount the wheels to.

http://www.jmtools.com/details.asp?Itemid=03-5500

 

Wow 8 hours and youve only gotten that far. I woulda just paid the $ and got it done at a shop, but hey.. props on your dedication

 

I would buff it out and if your painting the middle gunmetal, you could do a reverse type thing and paint the dohc vtec and honda motor company in gunmetal too.....I think it would be different and good, you could paint it silver to get a even coat (no swirl marks) or a darker silver, clear coat it and viola different than all the other blue or red valve covers. Sometimes ya gotta break the mold, and if you don't like it go strip the paint.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MrJohnTan &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wow 8 hours and youve only gotten that far. I woulda just paid the $ and got it done at a shop, but hey.. props on your dedication </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

dam, 8 hours work??? oh well...if your happy

 

Ive been doing the same thing with a BOV that I have...I totally understand why it is taking so long. And my **** is a bout a quarter the size of what you are doing....