Want to Polish My Valve Covers

[iMod]

Just wondering if anyone knows of any good polishing compounds for aluminum. Someone told me I could just bead blast it in the Diesel shop near my old welding class. Would that be a good idea before I polish it? I already used a little Dremel drill to get all the grime and crap off but I want a nice clean polished look.

 

[zachm611]

i too am interested in polishing my valve covers, i managed to do a good bit with a wire wheel on a bench grinder though i have an 8" grinder and a 6 inch wire wheel, its kind of a PITA but it seems to be looking pretty good. all the 8" wheels i could find were all coarse instead of fine. let me know if you find any polishing compound.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Powdercoating FTW

 

[p5150]

You dont want to bead blast or get too rough with them. The whole point of polishing is to make the surface as smooth as possible.

Use paint stripper to clean the paint off of them first.

Then, use the finest grit that you can reasonably expect to smooth the casting flash off of them. I use a rotary stone for the really rough stuff.

Keep going with progressively finer grits and eventually you will have a dull mirror finish.

Once you have sanded up to 1000 grit or so, THEN you use polish.

 

[iMod]

There's a place a few miles from my house that does powder coating, I don't know if I like the look though. Kind of a dull paint look. I'd perfer to just have it polished then I plan on getting my airbrush and touching up all the writing and stuff on the valve covers with some black and red paint like the originals.

Anyways though, would you know of any polishing compounds that'd work well?

Edit: just saw your post p5150. I've ground it down with 120 grit and it's a bit rough, but I'll go ahead and work my way through finer grits.

 

[p5150]

Yeah go with 200, 300, etc etc.

I have found that using a spray lubricant with whatever media you are using is helpful. I prefer the "lubricant" from wal-mart. Cheap and effective and keeps the aluminum from building up on your stuff.

 

[iMod]

Thanks for the tip, I'd get some wal-mart lubricant but it's underwater at the moment lol (Flooded). I had metal shavings everywhere when I was grinding the valves. That lubricant should help a lot.

 

[p5150]

Yeah the lube is nice because you can just wipe off the valve cover as you go with a rag and see how it looks.

Another useful polishing tool is the rotary paint strippers/grinders that look like brillo pads. They are round and are usually red or green. They can be used in the place of higher sandpaper grits. Just dont turn up your die grinder too much because they will wear out really fast at super high rpms.

I think that The Weezl (user ID) purchased some different polishing stuff for his wheels (sawblades) at his local bi-mart, but I looked in the one here in my town and I did not see what he was talking about.

 

[Tire Shredder]

here's a write up I did on the celicasupra forums on how to polish wheels to a mirror finish. the same theories apply to any type of aluminum. A palm sander or grease less compound can dramatically cut down on sanding time. in any effect, wet sanding has to take place from 400 up. in theory you can polish with black emery compound from 400 up, but it did not agree with my wheels, nor did the brown tripoli (created scratches) the white did the trick though.

be aware that 98% of the time is spent sanding. be obsessive and spend a ridiculous amount of time on it. the actual polishing takes all of 10 minutes to do. do every sanding pass 90 degrees to the last one. any scratches missed early on by the following grit WILL show up later (5 grits and 10 hours later) and you'll have to start all over again.

my thread: http://forums.celicasupra.com/showthread.php?t=13251

I use this place for all my polishing supplies: http://www.caswellplating.com

 

[jdub]

If any of you guys are interested, I have a set of ceramic chrome coated NA valve covers for sale...it will save ya a lot of time

 

[Rennat]

You can get the valve covers powder coated any color basically... i have some pics of gloss black and a wrinkle black parts, and they both look amazing. and if you get that "chrome" color, its basically polished. haha.

 

[p5150]

If any of you guys are interested, I have a set of ceramic chrome coated NA valve covers for sale...it will save ya a lot of time

Hey those look pretty nice man.

 

[Tire Shredder]

ceramic looks pretty good for the time required, and is low maintenance. polished looks sweet when done properly.

 

[p5150]

Very nice Steve. Have you considered coating that stuff with some Glisten PC by POR 15? http://www.por15.com/prodinfo.asp?grp=GPC&dept=6

 

[Tanya]

Holy hell Steve, if I wasn't going to delete my PS pump, I'd totally do that. SO NICE

 

[Tire Shredder]

Very nice Steve. Have you considered coating that stuff with some Glisten PC by POR 15? http://www.por15.com/prodinfo.asp?grp=GPC&dept=6

I did immediatley after polishing them. I had a local autobody shop spray it on.

after three years, the clear coat broke where the tire rubs the wheel edge. I sprayed them before mounting the tires and had them wrap the clear around the inside to help prevent this, but it still happened. a pressure washer then flaked off a couple pieces on different wheels. I'll be stripping them this Christmas. up until this year, I would have recommended it as they always looked shiny and never had to polish.

perhaps I'd have better results if I used the AP-120 acid prep, but I couldn't bring myself to let something etch into my freshly polished wheels.

I have this coating on my PS reservoir and valve covers aswell. some rust is forming underneath the cap somehow (small spots). the valve covers however, still look perfect, shiny and the aluminum still looks freshly polished.

 

[p5150]

I put the metal prep on and it didnt discolor the metal - it just dissolved everything else on it to include the polish residue.

 

[Tire Shredder]

I put the metal prep on and it didnt discolor the metal - it just dissolved everything else on it to include the polish residue.

intersting. I cleaned thoroughly with degreaser, dish soap and finally acetone before painting. I have since learned that I should have used something to remove any silicone that was left...but I thought it was clean.

you noticed no change in the image when using the AP-120? I'm currently polishing my 7m's valve covers and intake manifold. if the AP-120 does indeed work...I may try the stuff again. (my glisten PC'd valve covers still look great after 3 years), so engine heat/grease and ocassional washing does not seem to bother it at all...even though AP-120 was not used.

 

[iMod]

how much are the valve covers going for steve?

 

[7Mboost]

If your polishing be prepared to work. Start off with something like 150-200 grit wetsand, then go up to a 400, 600, 800 and 1000, and 1500 if your up for it. Then hit it with some polishing compound.