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Hey, a number of people have asked me how to polish valve covers. No secret, so I will tell
1 - Remove all factory powder coat and I mean all. Now, don't get lazy here and leave a little here and there. It will look like crap. I use a bead blaster with the oil ports plugged but you can also use a chemical stripper (there is usually a cheap stipper, no pun intended). However, if you go chemical, you must be absolutely careful and not scratch the aluminum. Afterall, you are trying to get the scratches out!
2 - Once all the paint is removed, you will see that the factory finish has less then stellar molds and that there is a lot of casting slag. To get this off and achieve a flat surface for polish, you need to start sanding. I hope you like sanding because you will usually end up doing a lot. Start with something more aggressive like a 180 or 220 and go up from there. In case I did not mention it, this is all wet sanding. Go all the way to a 1000 or 1500 - 220/400/600/800/1000/1500 (dont skip or else I will have to kick some butt :-). You may notice some deeper gouges and you might have to go back to an aggressive paper and start up again.
3 - With a smooth, flat surface, I take the piece to my buffing wheel. Using a buffing compound, I start going at it like a wild monkey. Now, this is pretty messy stuff so I wear a respirator, proper clothes, and a full face shield. You can do this with a drill but it has to have enough torque and speed to put down the shine.
4 - When its all shined up, you will need to protect your new found friend, so out comes the powder coater and a new layer of clear goes down. You can use a spray clear but it needs to be high temp and make sure the surface is absolutely clean. And thats all there is to it! Pretty simple, huh?
Here is a picture of Cliff's valve cover.
posted by 206.16.3...
, Tue, 4 Jan 2005 19:05:44
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