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It's time I repainted my valve covers. I think at one time someone used some degreaser on them and part of them turned brown. What paint should I use and what process should I use to make them look original?
For my Mg '88 center-bolt covers I used carb cleaner to degrease them then wet sanded with 220grit and finished up prep with a laquer thinner wipe.
I then shot em with several medium coats of valve cover paint from MAD (two cans of it so I'd have enough), wet sanding between coats. That was last Fall and still looking good.
I didn't take them down to bare metal, just smoothed them out a little and assured they were clean.
you might check around your area for a powder coater, i paid $25 to have a set of mag's powdered bright red. it blows paint so far out of the water it's not even funny.
Powder coat them...I tried using a high temp paint that eventually became discolored. It's not worth it, if you powder coat it should last a long time.
I cleaned them with un-diluted Simple Green and painted them with POR15's aluminum high-temp engine paint. It is brushed on. People who see the covers on my car don't believe it's brushed on. It wets-out quite nicely.
The top one is how they looked when they came off the car (you'll notice I busted it when snapping out the drip tabs for my 1.6 rockers, good thing I had another set).
The bottom one was after a quick wire brush to prep, Rustoleum Primer, and Rustoleum semi-flat black.