• Valve cover clean up

      Ok so my valve cover was looking a little beat up after 8 years of oil changes, valve adjustments and just wear and tear on it. I decided to do a little DIY wrinkle paint and figured I would take a few pictures of it while I was doing it and do a little write up.

      Things you need:
      VHT Wrinkle paint (comes in black and red)
      Air Craft stripper
      Nuts and bolts
      Old shirt or towel

      First things first you need to get the valve cover off.

      Next you need to remove any rubber grommets from the cover

      Then you need to start to strip all the paint off the cover. What I did was cut up an old shirt and cover up the spark plug holes since the seals were still in. I sprayed the entire cover and let it sit for around 30 minutes while it did its magic. I then sprayed everything off and then sprayed the stripper where it was needed

      Once it is cleaned up you need to scuff up the bare metal. I used the metal scuffing pads and just cleaned everything up for about 10-15 minutes. This helps get any remaining paint off the cover and makes the surface easier for the paint to stick too.

      Finally you need to clean the cover one last time and dry it completely off.

      Next you need to cover up any holes in the cover. What I used were random bolts and washers to cover mounting holes, fill holes, and the sensor holes. This seems to work well. I then used the cut up shirt to cover up the spark plug holes as again.

      Now its time to paint. What I did was spray the cover with 3 thick coats. When reading the can it says to spray vertical, horizontal, and then diagonal, so I did. In between each spray I let the paint set up for 10 minutes.

      Once the final coat was put on I set the over to 200 degrees and the timer for one hour. I placed the cover on a tray with tin foil on it and place it in the over.

      Within 10 minutes you will see the paint start to wrinkle. Let the cover completely bake and thhen remove it and let it cool off.

      Once its cooled off reassemble the seals and then re install.

      If you have any questions let me know. I will be doing another cover later this month with the engine paint so I will post up pics of that once it is done.
























      This article was originally published in forum thread: Valve cover clean up started by dtmcnamara View original post
      Comments 66 Comments
      1. bpoweredhatch's Avatar
        bpoweredhatch -
        good job on the vc i ve done a few this way
      1. JJSPEC Racing's Avatar
        JJSPEC Racing -
        Looks good!
      1. FasTech's Avatar
        FasTech -
        I actually wasn't expecting it to look that good, man. Looks very good though.
      1. boostedb16's Avatar
        boostedb16 -
        so if you used wrinkle paint, why did you put it in the oven? was that just to bake it on or did the heat cause it to wrinkle more? i tried so kind of wrinkle paint before and it looked nothing like your's.
      1. dtmcnamara's Avatar
        dtmcnamara -
        Quote Originally Posted by boostedb16 View Post
        so if you used wrinkle paint, why did you put it in the oven? was that just to bake it on or did the heat cause it to wrinkle more? i tried so kind of wrinkle paint before and it looked nothing like your's.
        the bake in the oven was to cure the paint. it was either an hour in the over or 48 hours in the air.
      1. boostedb16's Avatar
        boostedb16 -
        ok that makes since.
      1. JDMEG6HATCH's Avatar
        JDMEG6HATCH -
        damn that shit looks hot!!!....shouldn't have done the spark plug cover though..just my 2 cents....
        where do you get that paint??..planning to paint my h22 valve cover red
      1. dtmcnamara's Avatar
        dtmcnamara -
        auto zone and advanced both carry it along with a bunch of other parts store.

        I wasnt going to do the spark plug cover but then it was going to be a different shade of black. I plan on stripping the Honda symbol and the DOHC and VTEC like it was OEM, just havent done it yet
      1. JDMEG6HATCH's Avatar
        JDMEG6HATCH -
        cool, thanks man...i'm already stripping my valve cover.....do you know where to get the wrinkle red paint??
      1. Jepetto's Avatar
        Jepetto -
        I did mine about a year ago and its still holding up. However I didnt bother stripping the paint. I just sanded it.

      1. Arm&hammer's Avatar
        Arm&hammer -
        looks hella nice man.
      1. JDMEG6HATCH's Avatar
        JDMEG6HATCH -
        i've been looking for red wrinkle paint...anybody know where i can get it?...i checked advance auto...pep boys..walmart...
      1. Jepetto's Avatar
        Jepetto -
        Summit has it and I believe pep boys does too
      1. ap1tuner's Avatar
        ap1tuner -
        bad ass job man. that looks really clean!
      1. khaxnguyen's Avatar
        khaxnguyen -
        hey good shit. + for the oven. =P
      1. aaronfelipe's Avatar
        aaronfelipe -
        Cute.
      1. thinkskater's Avatar
        thinkskater -
        very nice reps
      1. DamnDisLaOsBoY's Avatar
        DamnDisLaOsBoY -
        nice shit david. looks pretty good all black!
      1. koukis14's Avatar
        koukis14 -
        Looks good
      1. lude66's Avatar
        lude66 -
        mine is getting baked pic's up soon reps for write up
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