Painting an Aluminum Valve Cover

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Mustang_Geezer

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You guys have any ideas on how to do it? I'm going to talk to our Lesonal paint salesman tommorow.

I'm talking specifically about painting Mikes raw (with polished fins) aluminum valve covers.

Figured I would post my findings here so that it would help others that want to paint thiers too! :D :D

I want to paint mine a semi gloss red to match my new plug wires and DUI distributer.

Later,

Doug
 
Standard prep I learnt for alloys like that was 1:1 Methylated Spirits and water, applied thoroughly with a Scotchbrite, rinsed well, blown dry and treated with wax/grease remover. You then had a few hours to paint before sufficient oxides re-formed to impede bonding. Regular chromate-free etches and epoxy etches were both OK from what I recall.

I'd be tempted to double up on masking the fins (if they're not being painted) so the primers stopped 1/32" shy of the final paint line. Then pull off the overmasking and continue. (Guessing you're going wet-on-wet.) Leaves a thinner edge to chip.
 
Hmm, good question Doug. I'll pick our paint supplier's brain when he comes out tomorrow. :LOL:

I think I'd go with an aluminum prep like PPG's DX533 followed with their DX503 to prep for paint. Check it out here. Scroll down to DX501 click on product sheet and read the info on page 2 for painting aluminum. 8)
 
Got it painted yesterday....looks bitchin! 8) 8) 8)

I'll post a pic later but basically like Adam & Phil pointed out, I scuffed it really, really good with a red 3M scuff pad and scuffing paste.

A red scuff pad would work fine if you dont have the paste...just a bit more work. Next I used surface cleaner, and that was a job to get all the polish out of the pores from the fin polishing process.

I used 1/8" 3M fineline tape to mask off the fins.

Blew it all off real well and sprayed 1 coat of Lesonal epoxy prime on it. Let it dry an hour and spray bombed 3 medium coats of Plasticoat Ford blue engine enamel on it.

After that dryed an hour I sprayed a 50/50 mix of Lesonal flat clear and Universal clear on it so it would look like it was powdercoated.

When it was dry it has the shine and look of a MSD ignition box which is what I wanted it to be.

Sorry about the mixing and matching of product lines ;)

It usually works for me! :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Later,

Doug
 
Heres a pic of it! :D :D :D

fsppcover.jpg


Later,

Doug
 
I want to paint mine a semi gloss red to match my new plug wires and DUI distributer.
Looks great Doug, but I thought you were going to paint it red?

Next I used surface cleaner, and that was a job to get all the polish out of the pores from the fin polishing process.
Tell me about cleaning up the polish on the fins. I can't tell you how many hours (days) I spent doing this. When I had the first batch done, I was told to have them painted first, then polished. Big mistake. More so on the gray covers because it really showed.
 
Here's a red one!

PB120003.jpg


I started with a CI cover with polished fins. I sanded everything with a "scotch bright" pad, cleaned it with "first clean" solvent, then sprayed it with the "Ford Engine Red" by Duplicolor (rattle can). I cleaned the paint from the polished fins with lacquer thinner on a rag (carefully!).

Harry
 
What........no Chevy Orange :x :LOL: ;) ?!?! Anyway...... :roll: ....it looks great Dougie-Baby :p ! So,WHY didin't ya paint it Red again? ~OO6.
 
These look great! Exactly what I'm thinking of doing, but ordering the unpolished so I can paint the fins red on the blue valve cover :D

Harry - did you use a primer first, or just paint? I'm a rattle can guy too, so can't use any fancy primers. Ford red does fade to orange after a year or so - I know as I've re-sprayed my regular valve cover many times to keep it looking fresh.

I'm also wondering about using POR 15 here to color match what I'll be putting on my block since it's pretty rusty....
 
One method is to prep and paint VC then when paint is dry / cured polish the paint off the fins. No masking.
Worked for me.
 
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