Powder Coated Valve Cover
 

Last month I spent probably 20 hours salvaging an old valve cover and hand polishing it back to chrome clean. It was a laborious, tedious job. But I finished it, and put it on the car, and I decided with the one I took off, I try powder coating this one instead.

Well shit was that a lot easier. I cleaned up the corrosion, didn't spend more then 2 hours tops on it, and drove it by the local shop which did it while I waited.

Here it is out of the cleaning booth:

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...ashedcover.jpg

Here they are spraying it:

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...dercoating.jpg

And here it is done:

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...wdercoated.jpg

I'll put up some more pics when I swap in back onto the engine side-by-side with the polished one.

looks real sweet. how much and how long did it take? What happened to the painted one you had in your car?

Took them an hour. Paid the guy $80 cash. They where running a load of conduit for a large city project and he just hung it on the rack at the same time.

And I don't have a painted one, I have a polished one.

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...6-25-07-01.jpg

Sweet Deal. I saw the red one in your pics and thought it was yours. Thats a pretty looking engine bay. Gives me a few ideas.

Looks good. +rep for badass cover.

whats the color on that actually? I have a cover I plan on getting done soon.

I don't know the exact color name or but its a DuPont brand. I saw that on the side of the container. I asked for the closest to chrome that they could get and that was what I got.

how did you clean inside of the upper part of the valve cover? Is there anything to swoosh around in there to take all the gunk out?

Look's awesome man. I'm thinking of having this done. What kind of shop would be able to do this? I'm assuming you need some special equipment.

I usually wash parts in a parts cleaning bin first. Regular Stoddard solvent in a Saf-T-Clean sink. Then I wash them with dish soap to get the film off. In the case of this part, I washed it one time, then did the corrosion clean up, then washed it again just with the dish soap. That was plenty.

Powder does have to be done by a powder coater shop. Yes, there is some special spraying equipment. But such shops are common. Just look them up. I used Yahoo yellow pages and the first one on the list worked for me.

Swapped them out today. Here are some side-by-sides and after installation shots.

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...idebyside2.jpg

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...sidebyside.jpg

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil...led_945077.jpg

https://www.cobaltss.net/gallery/fil.../8/closeup.jpg

Obviously the polished one is a lot sharper. But the coated one won't corrode. Hey Biohazard, if you are reading this, I broke a cover bolt today. First one ever. Fortunately I was able to get mine out and Tom at CED has already ordered me a complete set of replacements. When that one broke, I looked at the rest, and there was consistent corrosion and streching of the bolts right at the same spot on all of them. Too bad they cost freakin' 5 bucks each. For a damn screw.

So now I'm going to clean up the polished one again and take it to get clear coated. I'm gonna see what kind of quality I can get out of a high-temp clear for bare metals.

Oh, and while I was in there, I did the functional check after installation and heard a familiar "put put" sound coming from the engine. Felt down around the flange between the header and the downpipe and sure enough I have an exhaust leak. I swear, if it isn't one thing, it's another. Anyway, that's warranteed, so off to the shop tomorrow morning.

looks good

Looks really good!

Hey Halfcent, I have two questions.

1. Where did you get the oil cap at?

2. The red ecotec 2.2 cover, is that what you have to remove to change the spark plugs. If so, what paint/steps do you reccomend to paint it?

i may not be half CENT but close enough

yeah thats where the plugs are

painting is almost always the same steps

clean
sand to desirable texture
clean with water,dry then clean with rubbing alcohol to help remove any contaimints
Then
self etching primer
and paint
then clear coat if wanted

or
etcher
primer
paint
and clear

Oh okay, but would I have to use a high temp engine paint? Or can I use GM color match?

I got the cap from Modern Performance. They still sell them. You can paint plastic part with regular paint, you don't need high temp. Aside from the steps listed above, you will want to disassemble the part as much as possible so as to only paint the part you want. It's a much cleaner result then masking.

When you take the engine bay cover off, the part painted, is there any steps needed like gasket replacement, i am new to this and some people told me to replace gaskets, i want to paint the bay cover but want to remove it to do so.. What should I do??

looks great i also powder coated mine but went with a smoked chrome look

I read up on how to do it, doesnt look to hard :) looked at redline forums.