Valve cover dings and dents

About a month and a half ago a buddy of mine came over with a bumper filler panel off a 61 Starliner he's putting together as a 70th b-day present for his dad. He was using my media blast cabinet to clean off the paint and was planning on spraying some Krylon and reinstalling. Well, I had him strip the paint, I smoothed out some dings with the hammer and dolly, and here's how I finished it, using some of my Imron rather than his Krylon...


http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/a...1&d=1353731395


Well I stopped by to check it out after he installed it, and noticed the valve covers looked like someone had changed out the intake and dropped it a few times on the valve covers. So he dropped them off for some dent repair this evening...


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture145-3.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture146-3.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture147-3.jpg


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All of these tools were used this evening at one point or another...


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture157-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture158-2.jpg


Dents were worked with various implements of destruction, filed to find the high spots, and low spots bumped up, then repeat.


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture153-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture154-2.jpg


As they will be painted, we'll leave off with the following.... Sandblasting and some H/K epoxy primer will take care of any remaining defects...


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture155-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture156-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture149-3.jpg


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It's all in the details................

Nice work!

I should send you the next set of dented valve covers I get as they look great,I got lazy and just filled the dents on a pair I just got.

Dude..... Ya got some skills for sure !

Nice work Robert, i got a 6cyl valve cover to do myself and thought about using a plannishing hammmer - is that ok to do? or should i stick with hand tools?
thanks, oj

Awesome, nothing beats ability and knowing how to use the proper tools.

Thanks for the comments guys. OJ, I think I would stick with manual implements, it didn't take too much to straighten it out. I think I'm going to try the laser dot trick next time also, for a bit better accuracy.

As tomorrow is supposed to warm up a bit, I'm going to try and spray some epoxy primer to get them ready for the gold paint. Here they are all sandblasted, hot tanked, and ready to go....


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture159-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture160-2.jpg

Here's the official 2 x 8 valve cover paint fixtures...



http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture161-2.jpg





http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture162-2.jpg





A couple coats of H/K epoxy and a guide coat and we'll let it sit a couple days....





http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture164-2.jpg





http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture165-2.jpg





http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture166-2.jpg

We had a couple sand-throughs on the valve covers, so some epoxy was mixed and reduced 10% to use as a sealer....


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture186-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture187-2.jpg


Here's the paint code for the early 60's Hi-po 390... Used acrylic enamel.


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture189-2.jpg


Finished up, looks quite a bit smoother than before....


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture190-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture191-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture192-2.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...cture193-2.jpg

I am looking forward to seeing them on the engine. Nice work!

As a follow up to the valve cover repairs, the owner has the car just about ready, just needs some tune up work...


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...g/100_2939.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...g/100_2941.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...g/100_2945.jpg


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...g/100_2946.jpg

That's a nice looking '61! Love that roof line, especially in the rear quarter view, and that engine looks perfect in there!