corvetteronw

I am thinking of changing my underhood look so that the TPI intake and valve covers are black wrinkle finish. Any pics? I found some that are painted satin black but none with the wrinkle finish.
Here is what my 91 looks like now. The ridges on the chrome valve covers are painted Chevy engine blue along with the valleys in the plenum. Not happy with this and looking for something different.

VetteMed

Weren't the Callaway cars' intakes painted black?

TA

I painted my plenum and runners with some type of matte black textured finish out of a spray can. The picture doesn't show it that well, but it definitely has a "crinkle" type finish.

ddahlgren

Yes they were and the key was to dry them under infra red lamps. The heat sets the wrinkle and bonds the paint. The parts need to be washed in solvent first to get the oil out and off the surface then hot soap and water to get the solvent out then dried for an hour under the lamps to get the water out. Cool then paint and back under the lamps to wrinkle and bond the paint. Finger prints are not your friend...
Dave

blakngold4life

Painted mine black a few years ago, the paint didnt hold up very well in the extreme heat and with wrenches scratching it up all the time so it has now been powder coated the same way. Since it was not polished before painting, the natural finish leaves it with a wrinkled look.

corvetteronw

Thanks for the pics and info. I found a pic of the Callaway L98 engine too:

mfi

I'm considering wrapping them in real Carbon fiber....

Cliff Harris

I worked for a company that made test equipment for telephone companies. They put wrinkle finish paint on their test equipment because it didn't show the defects in the metal.

I saw a couple problems: dirt gets down in the wrinkle and it's almost impossible to clean it. The other thing I saw is that the paint is pretty thick and a chip is a huge hole.

I powdercoated my valve covers because the original paint looked bad and I am seriously considering doing that to the rest of the aluminum parts.

Daniel_Mc

Ron,

I think that would look KILLER! Especially with the runners you have. I have a black L98 but gloss black (should have done the wrinkle) but with a MR so the look isn't even close to the look you are going for. It's not an L98 but I do have that finish on the LT5. BTW very easy to keep clean.