Polishing valve cover

Damn that thing takes for ever,
I'm rubbing that shitty valve cover for almost three days now and I still didn't rub all the color off and then when I'll do that with hard sand paper I must do it with three other papers so I'll get fine and shiny surface and then finally polish it so it'll be shineing like chrome

So plan is to polish valve cover and intake manifold so it'll look very nice on my new engine :bigthumb:

Beside that I'm still waiting for my performance pistons to arrive then we'll build my engine and the shitiest part of all is that I'm trying to get B16A tranny but I just can't get any not in Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Germay there just aren't any trannys for that motor so I guess I'll have to redo my nice Hasport mount kit for that tranny that I already got B16A2 :frown: :frown: :frown:

Any ideas what should I do???:confused:
Help apriciated:smile:

And here is a photo of my work!

CYA

I had the same problem... I was trying to do that to my D16y8 valve cover, and finally, I just gave up and took it in to have it powder coated with chrome. It only cost me $50, so not too bad at all, and it looks way better than I could've ever pollished it.

So, try and clean it up real good, and if you've left any deep scratch marks, try to buff those out and have it powder coated... They told me that as long as you can't feel the sanding marks with your finger-tips, it should come out smooth because the powder coating is pretty thick and it fills in some of the imperfections.

Good luck!

looks good so far! keep us posted!

Plus, there's just no good way to do any sanding between the lettering and stuff...

Here's a picture of how mine turned out:
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/830217smValveCover02.jpg

and another one from a different angle:
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/366813smValveCover01.jpg

Looks very nice,
I know a guy that could sand me that valve cover but I know that even after sending that cover won't shine like chrome that is why I'm doing it by my self, I did that to my custom CAI pipe to so I know the prosedure...

It's gona be long project I'll photo my finger tips on the end too :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Dude, you should have told us a few days ago. I could have saved you a lot of work. Go out and buy a can of "Aircraft Stripper", that stuff takes all the paint off with almost no work. I've tried polishing my valve cover before, and yeah, it's a bitch and a half to sand down around the lettering, and the results usually aren't that good. My suggestion is to just strip all the paint off, and repaint it in a different color.

No way that I'm gona paint my valve cover that is so used trick, as you can see that cover was painted in ITR red paint and on previus engine I also had that red paint on, but after I did that almost half of a people that I know did that too that is why I'm doing the polishing no matter what :bigthumb:

No one has that in here for now :tongue:

CYA

well keep us updated on the work man, looking pretty good so far.

So if I'm reviewing my project here is one of them too
It's the toyota WRC hood scoop in bolted to my hood also pretty hard to do making whole through that shitty hood and then try to get that scoop in center and above the headers so I won't have to worry about engine getting to hot, the air from the water cooler will go out through that scoop very fast at least that is my plan :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Here it is :



http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_a/379000-379999/379409_1_full.jpg

CYA

P.S.: the fenders are also in project phase I'll shave the corner lights and the place where that side plastic comes and wide them some more

Originally posted by Marc-OS
Dude, you should have told us a few days ago. I could have saved you a lot of work. Go out and buy a can of "Aircraft Stripper", that stuff takes all the paint off with almost no work.

Thank you very much for that advice I did buy one of those things paint removers and now valve cover is totaly color free :biggrin: and I'm already sending it with different types of papers so I think that till the end of this week that cover must shine crazy :bigthumb:

CYA

just for your information, i know a guy that does a great job powdercoating and polishing. Drop him a line, talk to Tom @ trgperformance.com. Tell him "BHG" sent you. he'll hook you up. he does great work.

THNX for that link but I'm from Europe,Slovenia so I would have to send my valve cover to that guy in USA and then ship it back so prolly that would cost more than the job he would do on that cover, so thnx anyway but I'll try to do it on my own :tongue:

CYA

Well the GT4 bonnet scoop should look really different emil :) You're going air-water for the intercooler? Top mounted or front mounted? I ask because most top mounted simply act as heat soaks and arent as efficient as front mounted. Most guys over here use custom built front mounts which take up most of the front bumper :)

damn that hood scoop looks huge on the hood! but looks good though :bigthumb: something different....

The hood scoop goes in to prevent hot air circling in the engine bay and to improve cooling system cause the whole from hood scoop is above the header so in that case hot air from radiator goes directly out threw hood scoop so that improves your cooling system a lot cause in case you don't have hood scoop that hot air circles in the engine bay and the radiator is not so efective like it could be a little advice from mechanic that repairs rally cars in here!!!

It's gona take a lot of time before I'll go for the FI but that is next step but I think I'll use B20 VTEC for that plan but like I said it's a long way till then....

First I'd like to see how my car will handle 200-220HP NA
:bigthumb:

Still waiting for my performance pistons NA (almost a month now):crying:

CYA

I'm pretty close with my valve cover too all I need now is sand it with two different types of sand paper I already did it with three diff. types of them and then when I 'll do that the next step and finnal will be polishing it....I hope it'll be finished till the end of this week :tongue:

can you use that air craft stripper while the valve cover is still in the car? or would I harm something? and plus how much does that cost?

I wouldn't do that if I were in your place cause it's really shitty job and that paint remover is really strong thing and you'll prolly ruin something else to in your engine bay, and then you must strip the paint from cover so all that paint would go all over the engine bay so my advice to you is take of your cover and put that piant remover on for 10min min. and then rub it of or like it says you can wash it off with watter!!!

CYA

But when you'll remove the paint you still have rough surface under so you must sand that real good if you want to prepair for polishing...

Ohhh I forgot to write you down price in our country is less than $10 for whole can and you won't use 1/8 of it :tongue:

CYA

that valve cover is tight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wonder ig I could fine someone in Aus to do something like that.

Also cant you just use a rotary wire brush to lightly brush some of that paint off without scratching it?

I finally did it :jump3:
So here it is my polished valve cover
It took me almost one month to do that
first week I was rubbing it with sand paper like crazy with
four types of sand paper and then I left this project for a while,
but I did take time and polished in past two days...

And here is the resault:
(I know the pics are bad- combo of bad camera and to shine cover)

And one more :)

P.S.: I'll prolly polished the valve cover from my previuse engine 1.6 16V D15A9 and sell it, anyone interested ??? :p