Shaved valve cover.

[JesterJess]

I am working on rebuilding a NT 94 Eclipse that I just recently picked up. While I wait for my block to come back from the machine shop, I'm pulling my hair out finding something to do. SO, I whip out the right angle grinder and a few pads and get to work. Let me know what you guys think about this. I'm not done with it. I need to hit it with a final pad and get the rest of the scratches out, but here is a "first step."

 

[gsxtasy]

Looks pretty good, looks a little 'wavy' yet. I'd break out a block and some sand paper and go over it a little by hand.

 

[LTUSPE]

Looks good so far. I did mine almost 7 years ago. Be prepared to polish it on a regular basis. When I lived in Michigan it got very corroded very quickly in the winter from all the road salt.

 

[JesterJess]

I will be hitting it with a bigger pad and a finer grit. This will remove all the waves.

I will be bead blasting it, and sending it off for powder coating. No polished aluminum for me!

 

[justinhill98gst]

looking good here what mine looked like when done, are you going to paint it?

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[JesterJess]

I'm going to powder coat it the color of the body. I will also be shaving my intake like yours. It looks good.

 

[deerhunter0881]

looks good so far, take before and after pictures

 

[johnmarines]

Looks great...

 

[Project2G]

Not bad. I have one too. I use this on all my polished parts and they are blinding when the hood is popped open.

Mothers® Mag & Aluminum Polish. I get it at Walmart.

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[sax_man]

Looks good man.

 

[knochgoon24]

I love Mother's Mag. I use it on my FMIC and IC piping.

I still can't get used to the shaved valve cover look. I like making the raised sections either black/silver/white.

 

[JesterJess]

Ya, it's a little late to change my mind. I just hope it all loks OK when I'm done. I will be doing a custom wraped spark plug cover. That's what will make it all tie together.

 

[dannyd97gst]

Looks pretty good, looks a little 'wavy' yet. I'd break out a block and some sand paper and go over it a little by hand.

I just got through restoring one myself. I thought of shaving it flat with and manual end mill just too many angles.
Does everyone else just grind them then block sand it flat?

 

[gsxtasy]

I just got through restoring one myself. I thought of shaving it flat with and manual end mill just too many angles.
Does everyone else just grind them then block sand it flat?

I used a grinder on the bulk of it, then hit it with 60 then 120 on an orbital, then block sanded up to 600 or something. Came out flat and looks good, no pictures of it bare, but then i had turboglenn weld some fittings on, and sent it off to bonehead to get powder coated.

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[Rob10_99]

That wrinkle turned out sweet

 

[JesterJess]

That's a sick powder coating. Looks like two differet V/C with the light hitting it at two different angles. I'm going to have mine painted to match the body color of my 1GB. Also, I started with a hard green #80 disc on an angle air grinder to take off 90% of the material. Then I went to a red pad to knock the rest down til it was level. Then onto a blue pad to polish all the red scratches out of it. NOW, I need to hit it with a block sander with some finer sandpaper. I'm not going to spend TO much time on it cause a high fill self etching primer will fill all of the imperfections. I will also block sand after a couple of coats of primer then have it shot to match the car.

 

[wondersb]

those are some nice valve covers. I shaved mine and polished it. Then it happened the rest of the engine looked crapy. So after about 50hrs of sanding and polishing, Im still not done. I will deffinetly pick up some of that mothers polish.

 

[JesterJess]

So, here is the finished product! There was one small dimple in the valve cover that appeared under one of the letters. I should of filled it with filler before I painted it, but now it's too late. I know it's not perfect, but It looks sick in person. In the pic, with the flash hitting it, it seems worse than it really is.

 

[kneipperk]

DAMN!!!! Thats clean! Good job

 

[95whitegst]

looks really good man good job

 

[whe3ls]

doesnt look to bad. i really only see only low spot, but it looks nice

 

[gsxtasy]

Looks really good man, nice work!

 

[JesterJess]

The hardest part was removing all of that old powdercoating without access to a bead blast cabinet. I used brake clean and a brass wire brush to prep the surface, then I painted it hanging from my garage door last night.

 

[river]

aircraft stripper works wonders on trying to get powdercoating or paint off anything. that's what i've used on my previous valve covers before painting them.

 

[jjrock5]

Looks badass!

Where did you get that piece thats holdong all you spark plug wires together by the intake cam gear? never seen it and I want one.