Just was wondering about painting my valve cover. it is currently red but i wanted to paint it a light blue. What are some of the steps and maybe some reccommendations for removing the old paint and applying the new coat.

The factory red paint is a thick coat with like specs in it. Is it possible to duplicate that but with blue?

Does it need to be primed?

Best method for removing old layer?

Heat rating for the paint?

anyother suggestions and experiences, thanks

 

use a scraper or a really rough sandpaper to get the old paint off. and make sure its completely clean before any painting. make sure you use high heat paint, and I don't know if they make it, but get some high heat clear if you can. You can get it up at o'reilly or auto zone, they have them that are for engine blocks and that should be finefor the heat of the valve cover. I didn't prime mine and it came out fine.

 

whoa whoa, just use heavy duty paint remover, autozone has something called aircraft remover that gets the paint off in minutes, literally. I have heard through the grapevine that it is not necessary to get hi-temp paint for the valve cover, although I use hi-temp when I do mine, just in case. I use duplicolor's caliper paint because I can paint the calipers, drums, and the valve cover all the same color at the same time. Follow the instructions.

Also, if you plan on removing the valve cover, I highly reccommend getting a new valve cover gasket, valve cover bolt grommets, and spark plug seals (they normally come as a set)

 

look in the DIY section, there is a whole DIY on painting the valve cover, with step by step instructions, with pics too

 

i used brake cleaner man! that stuff is awesome!

 

The factory paint is powder coated ( i assume that is the proper term) it is thick gritty with bumps in the paint. How can u duplicate that but with blue color. thanks for the suggestions

 

are you sure the factory isn't a wrinkle-coat paint? The paint on it will seem really bumpy and "wrinkly"... I'm going to eventually paint mine gold wrinkle-coat. Unfortunately, I've only ever seen red and black wrinkle-coat paints. So what I'm going to do is get black wrinkle-coat, paint it with that, and then paint the newly-wrinkled cover gold. You could do the same thing with blue.

Anyway, I've heard that you don't really need to use high-heat temp (when you think about it, the valve cover never really gets all that hot), but I like to just as a little safety precaution. You'll want to sand off the factory paint (or use paint stripper or brake cleaner), then make sure everything is nice and dry. Now, if you want the lettering to stay silver, the easiest thing is to sand it now. After it's sanded to the point where you blind yourself when the glare catches you just right, put some chapstick over the lettering. After the chapstick is on, you can paint the cover like you'd paint anything else. Once the paint is dry, wipe away the chapstick to reveal the still beautifully sanded letters. You'll want to let the paint cure for however long the can says to let it cure for. Otherwise, the paint tends to do funny things.

Also, I recommend Dupli-Color engine enamel; it's never failed me no matter what I paint with it, whether it be a valve cover, various tie-downs, brake calipers, interior trim, etc lol

 

well i should say... hows the old paint? if the paint is fine just lightly scuff the paint and paint over it... no problem...

i tried painting my valve cover smooth BUT its just not turning out as smooth as i want so im gonna buy some wrinkle paint then go over it with some shiny black paint...

 

 

I've never tried this method but I hear it works a lot better if you spray it with the paint remover and then cover it in aluminum foil.

The aluminum foil makes it penetrate better somehow and will come off with the spray of a hose.

Keep the paint remover off your skin though.