Painted valve cover

[mysatilac]

I painted my valve cover yesterday, IMO turned out good, Reinstalled it late last night, and drove it today (when I was at my buddy's house, I left it runnin and checked for leaks with a flashlight... locked my keys in my car and had to wait like a half hour for the spare to arrive, since I didn't want to coat hanger it...BTW, no leaks that I could see)
But anyway here is a pic of how it turned out, and trust me the camera phone pictures just dont do it justice... I'll probably post pics when my intake arrives Tues. 4/19

[sierrap615]

you painted the bolts too? nice touch.

so ..... details? just spray paint? high temp paint? sanding? clearcoat? how may coats?

it does look very nice and glossy.

hehe, just noticed you painted your dipstick!

[mysatilac]

Thanks, it did turn out glossier than I thought it would, and yeah the bolts were a last minute touch (didn't think about it till I was about ready to re-install)

I used engine enamel, I scuff sanded the original paint fairly well, chipped some off and tried to take it all off, but once I got one whole side off, I decided that was too much trouble and just wiped it down real well with laquer thinner, then sprayed it down with compressed air to clean off all the silicone gasket that had to be scraped off (Hardest part of the job...), sprayed on about 5 coats in all, no clear, although I considered clear engine enamel for a top coat, but it wasn't needed

Yeah: (BTW thanks for noticing ) with dupli-color "chrome" and then clear coated (it looked alot more like chrome before the clear which made it more gray/silver, like the stock valve cover) heres a list of the things painted as mentioned
dipstick handle
battery tie down
power steering fluid cap
oil filler cap
brake fluid cap
washer fluid cap
coolant cap
all visible in the second pic, except the washer fluid and coolant caps because that side was in the sun

and lots of interior stuff w/ krylon fusion for plastics in maroon

Planning on doing the fuse box top, and all the reserviors, and the intake and exhaust manifolds

[mysatilac]

If you do this mod, be sure to lay down a thick enough layer of RTV sealant, and clean the gasket mating surfaces very thoroughly,

Today, I redid my gasket after finding my #4 plug "swimming" in oil, this was after 3 and a half weeks... And I checked good after the first few days, Instead of pulling the plug and draining the oil into the combustion chamber I placed a paper towel round the plug and used compressed air to blow the oil away, I didn't like the idea of burnin it off, wont work so well on a DOHC, but with the SOHC worked fine,
guess the trip to and from austin (about 422 miles roundtrip) was too much for my RTV gasket,

Oh well, getting the old gasket off was the most difficult part, but its over now,
BTW I think me and my cat were effected by the carb cleaner fumes, follow the directions and use in a well ventilated area...