Valve cover - decided to do sumpin' different...

I've been a fiend for polishing anything that is remotely alloy and bolted onto an engine but this time around I decided to try out something different and test out some of that anodised coloured lacquer in pressure pack spray cans. One of the local auto shops had it on sale and I thought "meh, why not..." I'd removed the valve cover off my G63B engine and cleaned it with non caustic oven cleaner, then started rubbing it back to get a more flat finish. While I was performing this act of insanity I had an idea - I was going to attempt an extrusion style finish on the valve cover by wet blocking it in one direction (not the obnoxious boy band btw) http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5c1a9a34.jpghttp://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...psefbd8ff3.jpghttp://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...psb27e8f3f.jpg

Once I was happy with the finish of the valve cover I prepped it, masked off the studs and top breather, rubbed back the nice billet oil filler cap I picked up cheap and taped over the seal channel and open face of the cover, it was time to try out the anodised lacquer. A couple of passes and it was looking o.k. for a first try - but on the last pass the spray can had a spasm and coughed one spot of lacquer in the most obvious place it could http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...cons/icon8.png How it turned out - http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...ps41740e80.jpghttp://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...psc0f2a3dd.jpg...and dummied onto the head with an adjustable cam gear (the finish in this pic turned out 'smeary' due to it being freezing in the man cave when I took it http://www.mightyram50.net/vbulletin...ons/icon12.png) - http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3a0259d5.jpg

Dude that looks like fire. Do you have directions for the wet blocking technique? I'm thinking about zinc plating and then chromating all of the bare metal in mine.

Thanks for the feedback noahwins. It was a pretty labour intensive process to get it looking like this. I started by grinding off all the casting flash level, then file finishing it so all the outer edges were looking straight.The G63B valve cover has some nice flat faces to work with so I capitalised on them. A bit of cleaning up of all the casting expansion fissures around the raised sections of the valve cover, then the wet and dry sanding with a cork block wrapped in 360 grit. Once all the faces were dead flat I took a medium grit flexible sanding block and dragged it in one direction (no I'm not doing that joke again...) until I ended up with a uniform finish I was happy with. After that it was the same as painting anything - clean it with mineral spirits and mask it up. I tested it out on the top cover of the gearbox shifter housing first just to see how it was going to react, how many coats etc (I know nobody is ever gonna see it except if the gearbox comes out or they look at this pic) -http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5d1937e1.jpg I gave this a rougher cross hatch sanding pattern and I liked how it looked more than the valve cover lolololol

Wow. :clap:

What kind of paint did you use?

It was "Dupli-color METALCAST" - this wasn't a personal preference thing so I can't say what brand is better than the next.

Noah did you notice his cam sprocket too?

HK5 Motors
6-CG-4G63-SOHC-BL



His paint is a transparent type that shows that wonderful metallic crosshatch work he has done. It enhances that metal through the paint, That is why it looks so nice. What I wonder is how long will it last under heated conditions. Will it want to crack and peel in time or will it expand with the metal.

I have used that paint - it didn't work out too well for me, but then I didn't go to the lengths Geezer did to get it to stick either, although I did spray it over the silver base that you are supposed to use.

Like I said, this is just an experiment so we shall see! I had a go at my thermostat housing today to match it up to the valve cover. The spray can was really temperamental after sitting from the last time I used it - wouldn't spray evenly, wouldn't stop spraying once I could get it to work... yay.

http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...pscf4cd2a8.jpg
As for the cam sprocket - the only thing I needed to do with it was upsize the dowel hole. I went in blind when I bought it as I've never messed with an adjustable sprocket before. It hasn't fouled the head or valve cover but required me cutting the centre of the cover out as the sprocket is 1/4" thicker. Here's everything dummied in place -

http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6e1d75f9.jpg

Oh, and thanks to admin for cleaning up my posts. Good to see the cops are on the job :thumbup: