Painting a valve cover

Camshaft · **Posted:** Mon Jun 25, 2012 12:17 pm

Hello all, I'm preparing to paint my 4G63 valve cover, and I'd like to do it in a black wrinkle finish with the raised lettering left natural. Usually I just sand away the raised surface after painting but that may prove difficult in this case since it's wrinkle finish. Has anyone tried spreading a thin coating of oil on the raised part, painting it, then wiping it off after the paint has dried? Any other suggestions?

Camshaft · **Posted:** Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:21 pm

rkkopra73 wrote:

Applying oil to just the raised surfaces without it weeping over the edges is going to be difficult, let alone something funky happening while you apply the paint (the oil could move around). Wrinkle coat is still just paint at heart, and shouldn't be too difficult to sand. Depending on the intricacy of your raised edges, you could scrape the majority of the paint off with a razor blade held at an acute angle to the surface while the paint is still soft. At that point hard block the rest off, leaving a uniform grain and nice sharply defined edges. If the detail is excessive, using a razor blade may be labor intensive. If so, start with a course grit to knock it down to bare metal, then step up to a finer grit until you get to a graining of your liking.

Robin

Thanks for the advice...never thought of using a razor blade. The lettering's raised up a healthy amount and it's going on a crappy car so I have a little margin for error at least. Thanks...I'll try that!

tristinGrind · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 4:41 am

Is this what youre looking at doing?

This was my valve cover on my last DSM. Mine was powdercoated though so Im not much help. I would just take the time to mask it. Of you can do what you mentioned with the oil, but skip the oil. You could always spray the valve cover and before it dries, wipe off the paint on the raised lettering. Or you could let it all dry and then dremel/sand it off.

kev · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:21 am

I've sanded lettering away on a wrinkle finished cam cover before. Just wrap some emery tightly around a block of wood and carefully sand it away. You can sorta see it in this pic

Camshaft · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:08 am

tristinGrind wrote:

Is this what youre looking at doing?

YES

I'm going to be "unlazy" and sand it off when it's done...hadn't thought of wiping it off while the paint's still tacky, I may try that!

tristinGrind · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:32 am

I'm no longer into 4Gs, but I might still have that cover in my garage somewhere. I don't think I ever sold it.

ill-minded · **Posted:** Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:03 pm

Do what Kev said.

OkieRA29 · **Posted:** Thu Jun 28, 2012 8:35 am

I used white lithium grease on my 20R valve cover and it worked great. I applied a very thin coating of the grease with a Q-tip and then painted the valve cover. I did have to do some sanding as using the grease did not leave a perfect line on the lettering of the valve cover. My next valve cover I will most likely sand back the paint rather than mask. The grease did make the job easier though.

Not a great shot, but you can see the valve cover at least.

4boys · **Posted:** Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:04 pm

On past projects I had good results using very inexpensive water based kids paint / crafts paint. I had very good results using thick gel type finger paint. It's heavy thick consistency made for good coverage and crisp results. Came off real easy too. Good luck
with your project.

ImPo · **Posted:** Sat Jul 21, 2012 1:23 am

I used brake cleaner/carb cleaner. Spray some into the cap, dip in a Q-tip and use it like a swab to remove the paint from the lettering. You will use a hand full of Q-tips but it's a simple way to localize what your doing. I tried the sanding method and found myself hitting parts I didn't intend.

Painting a valve cover

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