Paint for valve covers, etc.

[jdpolzin]

Hey guys, just for conversation, I am in the process of painting my vavle covers, turbo sheild, headers, and the aluminum pulley bracket. I have looked for a while to find a good high quality paint and came across an awesome one! I got a 1200 degree ceramic paint at AutoZone. I got the aluminum color and it works and looks great!! After sanding and prepping very well, I painted everything and stuck them in the oven at 400 deg. for 2 hours(good thing I'm not married!!). Anyways, everything looks great!! The valve covers and aluminum bracket looks like they are polished. I also painted the turbo shield with the same paint and looks just as it did from the factory. You can't tell they are painted at all!! I'm not sure how well the headers will hold up but they look very very nice and with 1200 deg. paint they shouldn't burn off. I painted a piece of metal and baked it just to see how tough the paint is and banged the crap out of with a hammer and it didn't chip at all!! Just a thought if any of you were intersted in shining up your engine bay without looking like you tried to hard, this is a great product and looks factory original!!

 

[87grandnat]

lets see some pics!!

 

[MaxVO2]

I used the same stuff on my plenum (it came out great..), and am thinking of doing the same for my valve covers, as it would be a major job to polish them up by hand. I don't mind prepping them for paint, and that's a job in itself, but those ridges on the covers look like they will take a lot of time to clean up if I try to hand polish, or use pads, etc..

Glad it came out looking good. Post pics if you have them.

Billy
Montgomery Village, MD

 

[2QUIK6]

In order to prep them for painting, especially those grooves in the VC, get a couple of cans of spray carb cleaner. It comes out at a high enough pressure it will just blast all of the oil build-up in those grooves right out. No sanding or prepping needed, just keep spraying it over the cover until all the oil and grease spots are off, also helps to use an air compressor to blow them off too...spray it on, blow it dry in about 10 seconds, and repeat several times until good and clean.

I painted mine some time ago with just some aluminum colored paint and they still look great, and now that they are painted, oil just wipes right off of them.

 

[tom h]

Originally posted by jdpolzin
... I'm not sure how well the headers will hold up but they look very very nice and with 1200 deg. paint they shouldn't burn off. ...

it will almost certainly burn off. Even the industrially applied ceramic coatings (Jet Hot, HPC, etc) recommend AGAINST using "only" their 1200º-1300º coatings, and instead using their nominal 2000º coatings. Turbo headers get *extremely*hot.

eg, see
http://www.jet-hot.com/pages/headercoatings.html

http://www.hpcoatings.com/hipercoat.htm
"For turbocharged, ... and other applications where exhaust component temperature will exceed 1300° F for continuous periods we recommend our HiPerCoat Extreme™ coating"

 

[jdpolzin]

I degreased the valve covers the best I can and then put them in the sink with some hot water and dish soap. After that, I sanded them with fine sand paper until all of the oxidization was off of them and then put them in soapy water again. I used a thin sanding block to get in the ridges(worked pretty well!!!). After another bath to get all the dust off, I rinsed them and then moved them with my fingers covered with gloves so I didn't get any finger grease on them. Yeah Im not sure about those headers, I basically only take my car to shows so maybe they'll last for a while! I'll most certainly take some pics when everything is put back together!!!

 

[Steve V]

I used the same paint on my headers on my T type over Thanksgiving and it's still on there and I put about 250 miles a week on it. I don't do a lot of WOT blasts though so maybe that's why it's on there still...

 

[GNVAIR]

Originally posted by Steve V
I used the same paint on my headers on my T type over Thanksgiving and it's still on there and I put about 250 miles a week on it. I don't do a lot of WOT blasts though so maybe that's why it's on there still...

At WOT you can expect 1600° temps maybe even higher depending on your tune. That is enough to discolor if not burn most coatings off. I have used the Jet Hot 2000 on several cars and it works pretty good.

 

[JoeNational]

I have used the 1200° black paint for my exahust everytying from the dumper back, and so far so good, i sanded the pipes down since i was given them from another user on the board and they had a couple of dings and surface rust on them, i dont expect those pipes to ge that hot also have used this on my up pipe and have been fine. but i wouldn't use it on the hearders or DP sincei know the heat even at reg. driving conditions are extremely hot. have my plenum and vlavecovers painted as well and all good, i recomend doing this as well since it is easy, fun and looks great when your done, i have got a lot of compliments on my black pipes since you dont see them that often.