see my shiny valve covers

[95talontsi]

I polished these babies myself, it was a pita cause the guy painted them before.

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Still don't see them. Post a link to the pics.

Later,

 

[95talontsi]

sorry'

 

[95talontsi]

The color got all messed up converting to gif stupid paint but you get the idea, I'll post better ones later.

 

[95talontsi]

this should be better

 

[95talontsi]

There are a little smudged cause I lifted them up with oily hands, but the effect is there, cost me 15$ and about two nights of work.

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

Not bad for 15 bucks.

Later,

 

[95_GST_AL]

dont look bad at all...what did you do?

 

[koreanpersuasio]

hey, i have seen that before on ebay. how did u polish it like that? what materials do you need? i want to do that too!

 

[95talontsi]

just sand them down and then polished them with mothers al & mag polish.

 

[BreathinHeavy]

thats nice i like polished better than powder coating...i guess it is the muscle car in me

 

[gstspyder1998]

Looks nice!!!

 

[808_SpyderGST]

damn that looks nice how'd you do that?? power sander or what?

 

[koreanpersuasio]

is there any other kind or type of polish i need? also, what kind of sander did you use? is there a certain coarsness of sandpaper i need? any help would be great! i want mine to look shiny like that too!

 

[larryd]

not bad, Ill delete the other post..

 

[95talontsi]

okay so here the proccedure
I hand sanded everything no tools
I used 40 grit paper to take the paint off
then went over in 80 grit
the to 150
then to 400
then to 800
then to 1000
cleaned it off with wd40 periodically cause alot of dirt builds up
then used mothers mag and aluminum polish it shines really nice
see sanding takes out all the scratchs and pores in the metal so when you polish it it looks smooth and shiny, mine covers aren't perfect but I wanted to drive the thing, it is hard sanding in between the letters and numbers but you can't really tell from far away.

 

[koreanpersuasio]

I bet if you use a dremel tool, you can get between the letters. Thanks for your tips! I am gonna try it this weekend. How long did this take you? Like 2 hours? 6 hours?

 

[crazyjoe]

Wow that looks really nice. I'm wondering now if I can't get my steel wheels closer to a high-shine finish with a little elbow grease and sandpaper instead of just the polish. I got 2 steel wheels and 2 chrome ones, in case you missed that post from a while back

Damn previous owners.

 

[95talontsi]

took forever, and I kinda of rushed it, didn't do the spots no one would see.

 

[smpolishing]

Looks great man, big for a DIY job. One thing that might give it a better shine is to use 2000 grit sand paper as the last step and a work bench mounted buffer wheel if you have access to one. Also, a dremel with a buffer attachment is great for tight spots...

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...then it will look like that. Hope this helped... email me if you have any questions.

Scott
www.SMPolishing.com - more pictures of my work.

 

[smpolishing]

I'm in the process of trying to machine a nice polished aluminum spark cover for it, thats why there's nothing right there in the picture.

Scott
www.SMPolishing.com

 

[SPEEDY]

Originally posted by 95talontsi
okay so here the proccedure
I hand sanded everything no tools
I used 40 grit paper to take the paint off
then went over in 80 grit
the to 150
then to 400
then to 800
then to 1000
cleaned it off with wd40 periodically cause alot of dirt builds up
then used mothers mag and aluminum polish it shines really nice
see sanding takes out all the scratchs and pores in the metal so when you polish it it looks smooth and shiny, mine covers aren't perfect but I wanted to drive the thing, it is hard sanding in between the letters and numbers but you can't really tell from far away.

If you ever have to deal with a painted valve cover again try using some aircraft stripper. Just spray it on and let it soak for a minute or two and you will see the paint basically fall right off of the valve cover. You may have to do it a few times to get all of the paint off but it will save you alot of time.

 

[smpolishing]

Also, Zep makes some good stripping products.

Scott
www.SMPolishing.com

 

[smpolishing]

SPEEDY, where did you get that aircraft stripper? Sounds like some good stuff...

Scott
www.SMPolishing.com

 

[4g63tc]

aircraft stripper? lemme geuss the stuff in the blue container with the airplane on it? i got some at pep boys, i think wally mart has it too.