Painting valve covers

GotToyota?

GotToyota?

Dedicated Member
Apr 6, 2005
1,639
0
0
35
Texas Motor Speedway
For you guys that have painted your valve covers, what type of paint did you use and what did you do as far as prep work goes? I'd like to paint my valve covers with a black high-temp paint, but would like to know the prep work involved, and the paint you people used. I hear some require oven baking, but I'd like to not use my house oven that we use for food.

-Matt
 
xarewhyayen

xarewhyayen

276 whp - 324 tq @ 13psi
Oct 3, 2005
959
0
0
39
Philly
Hey i painted mine, Use high temp paint like header paint or something. To prep mine, i used a bench grinder with a wire wheel to wire wheel it clean and shiny, then just used high heat paint. You should probably top it off with some high heat clearcoat to keep it from chipping and for ease of cleaning. and obviously make sure its cleaned well before you paint it... after you rinse it, alcohol does a good job of wiping it down and doesnt leave residue. dont forget to use a generous amount of light coats instead of a couple heavy coats.

The pair i have on my engine i just put in i just wire wheeled them to give a shine and clearcoated them... looks nice to me
 
GotToyota?

GotToyota?

Dedicated Member
Apr 6, 2005
1,639
0
0
35
Texas Motor Speedway
Yellow 13 said:
1 can will be enough for a set of covers, do 2 light coats and 1 thick coat. I painted mine with some High heat engine enamel.
Click to expand...
Any pics? I'd like to see what you guys used for color suggestions. I was personally thinking gloss black.

-Matt
 
xarewhyayen

xarewhyayen

276 whp - 324 tq @ 13psi
Oct 3, 2005
959
0
0
39
Philly
1 can of color, 1 can of clear should be plenty... I went with gloss black, but in retrospect i didnt like it. My current pair are just brushed aluminum look i guess since i wire wheeled and cleared them. If i were to paint again it would be a silver or aluminum color... makes the engine look cleaner.
 
Stretch

Stretch

Tallest MK3 driver ever!!
Mar 30, 2005
1,275
0
36
37
Toronto, Ontario
I did the wire wheel too. I used a drill attachment wire wheel and drilled away at them. Got down to the metal. Sprayed with gloss black engine enamel and then taped off the lines and painted them colourchanging from gold to pink. Looked killer.
eric
 
Clip

Clip

The Magnificent Seven
Oct 16, 2005
2,738
9
38
35
Virginia
now thats just schweet. ive still got a can of the red to copper to green i might think about using. either that or getting everything powdercoated by a friend.
 
88MK3

88MK3

New Member
Dec 26, 2005
117
0
0
Phoenix,AZ
I cleaned my valve covers by hand using some fine sandpaper but used a sanding disc on the 3000 pipe to save time here are some pics


p364988_1.jpg


p364988_2.jpg
 
starscream5000

starscream5000

Senior VIP Member
Aug 23, 2006
6,359
0
36
Hot and Humid, KY
I want my block to be a bright color that way it will be easy to spot any leaks when they first occur. Having a dark colored block will make it much hard to catch something going wrong before it becomes a big issue.
As far as painting the valve covers, do most of you bake them in the oven in between layers of paint? If so, what temp and how long?
 
NJsupraA70

NJsupraA70

Ex-Supra Owner
Sep 18, 2005
276
0
0
44
NJ
If you wanna do it right and save yourself some time just simply bring them to the machine shop to be bead blasted and tanked. Should cost you no more than 10-20 bucks.
 
Stretch

Stretch

Tallest MK3 driver ever!!
Mar 30, 2005
1,275
0
36
37
Toronto, Ontario
NJsupraA70 said:
If you wanna do it right and save yourself some time just simply bring them to the machine shop to be bead blasted and tanked. Should cost you no more than 10-20 bucks.
Click to expand...

My local machine shop said they couldn't blast my covers. They said the beads might get stuck in the baffles, I was like "fine you just lost $30!"
eric
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom