shaving and polishing my valve cover this weekend and need some advice

[gotgrip666]

so after i grind down the calve cove and start sandin I .......start with 150 dry sand up to 250 the from up wet sand? all the way up to anything past 1500?
i want it to look like this and also where can i find this oil cap too

 

[rucr8z2]

Yeah when I did mine I just progressively moved up to 2000 grit wet sand paper the used a benchgrinder with a lambs wool disc on it . I used the brown jewelers rouge on it to buff it to a chrome like finish.

On the oil cap - try nopi.com or even speedfreaks.com

 

['96_Talon_TSi]

Looks like a silver annodizing or a silver jet coat to me. I could be wrong though.

 

[Defiant]

You're probably not going to get it done if you want to start with grinding. Best bet -other than finding one on eBay that's already been done- is to get the smoothing done with a mill and polish back up from there. It's also a good plan to start with a spare cover- you can figure on at least a couple of days' really awful labor.

I think that oil cap is a Ralli-Art or whatever that's been chromed.

 

[dave99gst]

dont try to grind the ends down flush - u will grind right thru the v/c

 

[gotgrip666]

well thats why i was asking, i don't have the money to buy one thats polished like that so i want to do it myself and learn in the process, i have a spare cover that I'm going to do it on. i just need all the right info first, so i appreciate you guys help and hope to get some ore detailed info from ya

 

[fastdsm1]

Dude...I can Help. ....I have polished everything myself and not for allot of money.I have polished the valvecover,intake,throttlebody,throttlebody elbow,thermostast housing,camsensor,head, water pipe beneath turbo,turbo,all turbo lines,powerstearing pump,alternator and a few other I cant think about now.So I REALLY think I can help you. . I will make this as simple and cheap as possible. The first thing you have to remember is that any scratches you put into the metal,youre going to have to remove! Next decide if you want the letters.I personally remove them to make it easyer to polish.If you wish to remove,remove with grinder wheel on powerdrill.DO NOT GO CRAZY grinding the whole valvecover(do me that favor) only the letters....next place a sanding disk on powerdrill and start with 100 grit on the area that had the lettering.Make flat and remove all traces of the letters and bumps.Next place 400 grit and go at it again,do the same with 600 and remove all paint rest of valvecover.Once done move on to 1000. After 1000 grit place 8" buffing wheel on powerdrill and start with red rouge and go at it.Only do small a area at a time.....do not rush at this point.By now it really start to get shiny,but youre not done.Now its time to make this motha bling.Replace buffing wheel and go at it with white rouge.Now youre DONE. All tools and rouge can be found at Sears.Sorry for being so long.hope this helps,any problems please feel free to ask.....later and goodluck.

 

[fastdsm1]

I will try to update my gallery.

 

[Attack Eagle]

here's an Idea...
don't start with a mitsu eclipse cover!!!

Start with one that is mostly shaved already, like a 1.8 hyundai 4g63 clone.

I ahve found some nice OEM smooth black covers from them with just slightly raised 16 valve on the front and nothing on the back at all. Strip it and you'd be halfway to your goal.

 

[red4G63T]

Wouldn't you have to replace the seal once you open the valve cover ?

 

[CanadianTSi]

Wouldn't you have to replace the seal once you open the valve cover ?

You have have to. I didn't and it doesn't leak, but it's a good idea to do it anyways.

 

[dave99gst]

Wouldn't you have to replace the seal once you open the valve cover ?

na - as long as the rubber is in good shape your ok with a thin layer of RTV

 

[Spyke169]

for polishing I have found cutting up old towels and then putting them on a palm sander with some mother's mag polish works really good

 

[speedy13]

na - as long as the rubber is in good shape your ok with a thin layer of RTV

well, Dave i wonder if you work at a car shop..I say this because we use to rtv the shit out of em(figure of speech,light coat will do) when i worked at one. a good way to find out if your valve cover gasket is not good is to bend it backwards,if it cracks,it's no good,if not it's OK.
Oh and fast dsm,great explanation,add some pics and you got yourself a tech article.

 

[Boosted90GST]

the oil cap is made by greddy and you can get the the wire injen cover aswell from andysautosport.com they have both