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well, since I assumed the subject was PAINTING valve covers, and not powder coating, and while an outgassing step might apply to powder coat, baking parts in a dirty, old, greasy, outdoor BBQ grill, prior to painting is utter BS. personally, I could care less what anyone does, but FWIW, I've been refinishing (paint) various types of castings for well over 40 years, and have yet to throw anything on the Weber outdoor. as a mater of fact, I've probably refinished a dozen sets of corvette magnesium covers over the last 20 years without a "cookout." I guess while you're at it, you guys could save some time, and throw on a couple burgers.
burgers, beers, and the wonderful aroma of oil burning off. Sounds like a good afternoon!
well, since I assumed the subject was PAINTING valve covers, and not powder coating, and while an outgassing step might apply to powder coat, baking parts in a dirty, old, greasy, outdoor BBQ grill, prior to painting is utter BS. personally, I could care less what anyone does, but FWIW, I've been refinishing (paint) various types of castings for well over 40 years, and have yet to throw anything on the Weber outdoor. as a mater of fact, I've probably refinished a dozen sets of corvette magnesium covers over the last 20 years without a "cookout." I guess while you're at it, you guys could save some time, and throw on a couple burgers.
Doesn't matter what you put on them. The concept of pre-baking to remove contaminants from the metal is still the same. Of course not in a grease laden BBQ.
Doesn't matter what you put on them. The concept of pre-baking to remove contaminants from the metal is still the same. Of course not in a grease laden BBQ.
well, all I can say, is I have yet to do it when painting magnesium valve covers -
For whatever it's worth, don't believe people when they say you can't polish these valve covers, they polish beautifully and the shine holds up quite well with an occasionally wax. I polished my valve covers and intake on my '92 and it looked great.
Last edited by Digital Disaster; 05-22-2017 at 06:45 PM.
For whatever it's worth, don't believe people when they say you can't polish these valve covers, they polish beautifully and the shine holds up quite well with an occasionally wax. I polished my valve covers and intake on my '92 and it looked great.
Those look great. I've never polished before. Might be something to try.
Also painted alternator and smog pump while I was at it. Here is how she sits:
For whatever it's worth, don't believe people when they say you can't polish these valve covers, they polish beautifully and the shine holds up quite well with an occasionally wax. I polished my valve covers and intake on my '92 and it looked great.
Thanks for addressing this.
I've heard it before. "You can't polish mag covers because, etc, etc, etc.. The waning orbit of the moon causes electrolysis with Valerie Bertinelli's butt, which basically makes the whole car explode with the force of a thousand suns, blah, blah. " But I never saw anyone actually try it.
joec feels very strongly about heating parts before painting/coating. all good.
i am NOT A PAINT specialist at all. i communicated what worked for me. i saw, with my eyeballz, pores in the casting "spitteling" what sure looked like oil coming from smallpin holes in my 85's vc's.
after i got them hot, i wiped the spittle oil stains with isopropyl and went to town with my paint and then 2k cleared. look awesome and the finish is very durable.
joec, im sure your opinions and experience are more than mine.
photos of said pores oozing oil and spitting when heated are in my thread from 2 years ago.
i will try your method on my next set of vc's and hopefully it works better than the one that worked for me.
who knows.
cheers.
VT.
i was real proud of how well these turned out. it was a dissaster though. the first coat blistered like crazy until i got oil out of the pores. 😜
Thanks for all the replies! I decided to sand them down the old-fashioned way, by hand. They turned out pretty well but there were a few imperfections that showed up when I painted that didn't before. Annoying because of all the work I put in, but not so bad I want to strip them down again.
Now the question is, do I need to use high-temp clear coat on them? I've seen conflicting opinions elsewhere, so I'm curious if anyone has used normal dupli-color clear on their valve covers, and if they have any issues. I'd just go buy the high temp, but I've got like 4 cans of regular clear I'm trying to use up.
Warning... I used high-temp silver Duplicolor and then clear on my cam covers, and they yellowed somewhat. Marc Haibeck came up with a paint shop that does his engines (see photo) - beautiful, and there's no sign of yellowing on those motors I've seen with his paint.
I'd be surprised if he wouldn't have them painted for you - but I'll let him speak for himself.
For whatever it's worth, don't believe people when they say you can't polish these valve covers, they polish beautifully and the shine holds up quite well with an occasionally wax.
I used to run genuine magnesium wheels on a race car. True, they looked great after polishing, but the shine wouldn't last long! If you want a full time job polishing, go for it!
I used to run genuine magnesium wheels on a race car. True, they looked great after polishing, but the shine wouldn't last long! If you want a full time job polishing, go for it!
The "Mags" on my friends Pantera are dull too. They were polished before but it didn't last. After the Pantera wheels dulled out, we decided not to even bother with valve covers. Maybe you found something new that hasn't been tried before that's the secret to lasting shine on magnesium. Those valve covers look beautiful.
05-22-2017, 04:16 PM
Me too.
