Bought A Valve Cover

[HondaBoy]

well, i had been wondering a long time ago if the 2nd gen prelude and accord SOHC valve covers would fit the A20. when i asked a while back, y'all said yes. anyway, i had seen one at the junkyard months ago and today, i finally bought one. i looked at the one on the 2nd gen prelude and accord. i tried to think which one would be the best pick. the accord one had the studs that the air box bolts to that kinda keeps it still, i guess thats what its for. the prelude one dosent have that. the accords has the crank case vent tube on the same side as the A20 carb and the prelude's is on the other side. i decided to get the prelude valve cover. they were both in the same condition. paint flaking off and needing to be cleaned up. im guessing they are aluminium considering they dont rust, but get ashy and oxidize. i took a brillo pad the the valve cover and got what paint and oxidation and oil i could off. all oxidation and oil came off, but not all the paint. i was thinking about either polishing out the metal, or painting it red to match the other red i have on the car. the raised lines i want aluminium color. if i do paint it, thats how it will be. i guess i will have to clear coat it also. theres 2 choices of paint. 500 degree and 1500 degree. im not shur how hot the valve cover will get. i was looking at my friends valve cover that he painted and its been a few months since that was done. the paint still feels kinda gummy, like you can press you finger nail into it. i had the same problem with my brakes when i painted them. so, got any ideas of what i should do that make it look the best? check the poll and give me some advice in a post!

[Mike89Accordcom]

I would paint it. I painted mine, and looks good.

[cdscowboy]

Paint that shiznit. If you had a light car, such as white or beige, definitely not. But you have a sweet red thing goin on there. It won't fade like white would.

[HondaBoy]

the car is champain beige(gold for those who arent specific), so red goes nicely with the gold color. also, what sould i clean that valve cover with? i cleaned it as much as i could, but still there is oil and some paint left behind. it will probley need some kind of solvent that doesnt dry greasy. any ideas? for y'all who painted you valve covers or any other oily parts, what did you clean it with?

[turfnnsurf]

Paint it like i painted mine in this photo..

[HondaBoy]

holy shit, thats beautiful. thats what im thinking of doing, almost exactly. is that an anodized type finish? looks good anyway. the way you left the raised parts is exactly how im planning how to do it. looks just like mine. turfnnsurf, how did you get it cleaned up and painted? it must have been fairly nastly when you got it. right where that space between the cam cover part is that is very hard to get in, how did you get into there? good job anyway. too bad mine has a carb setup. ill fix it up nice though.

[thegreatdane]

Originally posted by turfnnsurf
Paint it like i painted mine in this photo..
http://hometown.aol.com/turfnsurf/images/angleview.jpg

Did that valve cover come off of a prelude?? It looks really good!

[HondaBoy]

i would say that is the prelude valve cover considering it doesnt have the air cleaner brace bolts on top and the lettering is at the top. so, anyone want to tell me how to clean this bad ass valve cover? i scraped most of the paint off with a strait razor, but as being that the paint on there was supposed to be pretty durable, its not all comming off.

[NXRacer]

your best bet would be to bead blast it. If you dont have access to one, go get yourself some liquid paint remover. you can get a bottle of it at almost any paint store. Then clean it off real good with some sort of solvent. If you wanna do it real nice, have it powder coated. most places that do powdercoating will beadblast the thing before they coat it. Then you can sand the parts that you want to show metal.

[HondaBoy]

well, my shop teacher has a sand blaster. its realy a bead blaster i think. anyway, my friend said to ask if i could use that. and he just found out that this guy down his street works for a place out of town that does professional powder coating. i can get it done for pretty cheap, so if i clean it up myslef, he would be able to do that for me. it would be a lot more heavy duty than spray paint. i dont know about the spray engine paint. it never seems to become "rock hard" like it should. maybe its just the paint ive seen?

[SteveDX89]

Turfnnsurf, that's not your car anymore. You can't post it. Haha, just kidding. I've seen that valve cover and it's looks f'in sweet. Good job on that.

[danronian]

The engine paint on my malibu's block became rock hard. I think it is b/c some people use it on parts that won't reach the curing temp. That or they just cake it on. I also used it on my malibu's steel valve covers and that is like a factory finish. It also gives off a nice smell to displace the odor of dripping oil when you first start the engine until it cures entirely.

[turfnnsurf]

HAHAHAHAH Steve, I know but i still have all the pictures of my old SE-i and I knew exactly what HondaBoy was lookin' for... HondaBoy check your PM's i'll be sending you my "HOW TO" paint a valve cover soon.. It really is pretty easy and not to expensive..

OH yeah, HondaBoy if you're thinking about polishing a valve cover. Here are a couple of pictures of my latest creation for my DSM.
Before:

After:

[Cheeseburger]

hey i was wondering if you can also seen me the "how to" paint my valve cover.

[HostileJava]

Originally posted by turfnnsurf
Paint it like i painted mine in this photo..

It's a little more red in there now

[turfnnsurf]

Cool James, I can't wait to see how it looks and sounds next time we all get to meet up...