hyndai shaved valve cover

[007jimmy]

i know this doesnt belong here but its the only place i can post for now. and i havent been able to find a how to on this..

i recently bought a shaved and polished valve cover on ebay that was in pretty beat shape. scratched to hell and who ever had it didnt take good care of it. anyways i cleaned it up and polished the hell out of it but after i was done i noticed a couple hairline cracks by one of the bolt holes.. well it turns out they went clean through and it leaked oil like crazy.. i like the look of it so much i decided to start from scratch on a known good one... here is what i did

tools needed.

dremel with adjustable speed.. i recommend a dremel brand becuase i burnt out my cheapy no name one on the hyndai intake im doing as well..
rotary sander
180 and 220 grit sand paper for rotary
drum sander for dremel
high speed cutter for soft metal in your prefered shape and size for the dremel

i started off with a hynda valve cover because there is less to shave and they are alot stronger then the stock dsm ones..

first step is to take the rotary sander and sand away the paint off the letters so you can see what you need to shave off

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next you want to take your dremel with the high speed cutter bit and go to town on the letters being careful not to take off to much material.

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next you want to take the sanding drum and take off a little more material from the letter so your just about even with the shape of the valve cover..

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next your gonna take your rotary sander with the 180 grit sand paper and sand away untill your letters disappear

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repeat for each letter taking your time not to go to deep with the dremel

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after youve taken off all the letters and sanded it smooth with the 180 you can use the 220 for a final sanding.. it will show and imperfections you still need to work on as well... youll eventually end up with this.. im going to sand the rest of the cover tomorrow and then start polishing it..

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[cmfd]

looks good. i just took the lines out of mine and shaved the intake. i used 36grit on a 3 in angle grinder.

 

[dsmking21]

looks real good man. ive messed up a few playing with sanding and polising them. Just remember to take your time and be careful not to allow any metal shavings to get under the baffele. it can be hard if not impossible to get it all out and damage your motor. great work so far.

 

[txbluebeast]

That's pretty cool, ibhadnt thought of doing that. Mine is just powder coated.

 

[007jimmy]

Thanks. Yeah I'm taking my time and making sure I don't get anything in the baffles. Hopefully I'll be able to bring it up to a mirror like shine. I'll be stripping the rest of the paint tomorrow with a small wire wheel on the dremel to get into all the cracks and valleys.

 

[mb3000]

What are your plans for the actual polishing?

 

[007jimmy]

The last one I did I used a 3m headlight polishing kit. It comes with 500, 1000, 2000 sanding discs and a 3000 grit foam pad but I did it all by hand. Then i used some mothers mag polish. This time I'm gonna take advantage of the dremel tools though. The one dremel kit I bought has some small polishing wheels and I'll probably end up getting a bigger polishing wheel for my drill.

 

[4g63tc]

To shave and Polish my valve covers i used.

1: a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a sanding flap wheel, 120 grit, makes quick work of the lettering ( takes about 15 minutes)

2: 320 grit wet sanding paper on a jitterbug to remove coarse scratches

3: 3M headlight polishing kit

3a: The Velcro backed foam mandrel works great with scotch brite pads. i worked these over the surface with plenty of water

3b: the 500 grit, and 800 grit sanding discs work wonders

3c: the 3000 grit trizact pad will bring it to a mirror polish in no time

3d: the polishing compound provided finishes it off.


the size of the 3M kit allows you to get into all the little cracks and valleys with little effort since it uses a standard hand drill.

for ease of use I screwed the cover to my bench.

 

[007jimmy]

This is a picture of the first one I did. Unfortunately it was cracked and I didn't know it. I just took it as a learning experience.

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[stellhornata]

very nice sir.

 

[Laggg]

good job

 

[Blurred Talon]

I brought my VC to a machine shop and had them fly cut it for me.

 

[007jimmy]

i cant do that.. the only the only other person i let touch anything on my car is a good friend of mine who has been helping with the build...

 

[97GSXBOOSTIN]

I like the polish job a lot, it sucks that it was cracked. Good job

 

[TSITurbo95]

Looks great!!!

 

[007jimmy]

thats what i get for paying 170 shipped to my door,, ive spent 149 bucks for the tool needed but im also using it for EVERYTHING...

 

[007jimmy]

little bit of an update on the valve cover. Between work and fixing all the stupid little problems on this car i've been slacking on finishing the valve cover.

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