Thread: Valve cover painting

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Hello, Old hot rodder here (63). First post.
Have a nice set of fined valve covers for my 57 chevy.
How do you guys and gals paint them to just have the
fins exposed ? Thanks so much.

If I had a set of finned aluminum valve covers I wanted painted with the aluminum showing through on the fins, I would sand and prep them, spray them with whatever color paint you want. Let then dry well. Then wet sand the fins to remove the paint. First with 400 to get the most of paint off, then finer & finer to get a nice finish. Then if you want to polish the fins hand rub with some rubbing compound. Takes a little patience, but works great.

If I had a set of finned aluminum valve covers I wanted painted with the aluminum showing through on the fins, I would sand and prep them, spray them with whatever color paint you want. Let then dry well. Then wet sand the fins to remove the paint. First with 400 to get the most of paint off, then finer & finer to get a nice finish. Then if you want to polish the fins hand rub with some rubbing compound. Takes a little patience, but works great.

I don't have any pics. of valve covers handy, but we did these wheels that way.

Hi there Denny, I came back & added a picture.

I have done a few sets of early Corvette valve covers in black wrinkle finish with exposed fins and script. I didn't sand them hard just in case I ever wanted to go back to natural or polished finish.

I cleaned them thoroughly with pre paint degreaser and scuffed them with a 3M scuff pad from the auto paint store. Then I polished the script and fin edges, wiped them down again and painted them. Now when the paint is just setting up but not skinning over yet I took a shop towel dampened- not wet-with laquer thinner and carefully wiped the paint off of the fin edges and script. Turn ths rag frequently and keep it bunched up in your hand so it doesn't contact the fresh paint anywhere but on the tip of your finger. I use both hands so avoid having to repaint.

This works great if you are careful and the polished fins really pop.

Tom

Tom, Thanks for the info. Had just about decided to do it the way you suggested. Cool Guy

I did these with the paint and wet-sand process. I tried the thinner method, but it was difficult to keep a straight edge with a rag.