I haven't really seen anybody with a painted valve cover. I was thinking about airbrushing mine tomorrow...just for a little extra color under the hood. Anybody know of anybody thats done this? I know its not that uncommon...i just haven't seen alot of minis do it. is there a reason why?

thanks!

 

I painted my valve cover blue after seeing the M7 Cosworth valve cover several years ago.I don't have the head or the Cosworth nameplate but i thought the color looked great especially on my Indi blue 03.Wasn't hard to do as the cover is a composite materal,just light sanding required so paint will adhere to surface and be sure to wipe down good with prepsol or other good cleaners to remove all dirt and oil.I used a good brand of ''engine'' hi-temp paint.Its been on there 3 years and no problems at all.

 

thats great! I think thats going to be another project this week. I'm going to airbrush some "ghost" checkers under a candy red maybe... I know it wont really be seen but then when people to se it maybe they will investigate it and then see the detail....
and it wont cost anything to do haha...

I'd like to see a picture of yours done! sounds great
-Malcon

 

i did mine in an "anodized" blue. metalcast paint by duplicolor. i've done a few more pieces since then but, there are a couple pics in my gallery. still have a few more pieces to go, i usually do a piece or 2 when i have some extra time.

 

hmm. Im talking about the cover with the MINI logo on it. where the spark plug wires connect, and what the coil is mounted on.

 

whoops i keep calling the imjector cover the valve cover. sorry.

 

 

its all good. It looks nice but you cant see it because of the IC :(

 

Yeah! thats what i want to do... looks great!

 

do you have any pictures of it on the car??

 

Man that is very cool. How hard is it to remove that cover?

 

You can remove the vale cover it in about 1/2 with simple tools. Right now it is a living room display.


MALCOM,

The IC does hide some of the Valve cover but when it is painted it shows up a little better. Even with an Alta IC and cover when you are looking down over the engine more then half of the cover is present. And if you have other painted, polished or curious parts they all make for a nice eye appeal.

 

looks like 10 bolts, you have to take off the IC, take off the coil, wires etc etc...more time consuming than difficult I'm guessing

 

Yup! The hardest thing is waiting for the paint to dry. I cleaned mine in lots of simple green and soapy water. And then ran it through the bead blaster prior to painting. I wanted it very clean before I gave it the oven test. baked it in the oven at 500 to see if it could stand the heat for powder coating which needs to be 400. No problem. But I end up painting it with spray paint instead because I wanted the slightly wrinkled look instead of smooth.

 

well it looks fantastic

 

Nice. Great attention to detail

 

I was JUST thinking about this paint - thanks for confirming that such a thing exists! Now I have a name to search for - appreciate it.

 

Yep... Metalcast is excellent - PGT has done a lot with it, also. They also make an "undercoat" to use on items that are NOT bare metal to begin with... that makes them look metallic - so the "anodized" look of the Metalcast works... I wish they had darker blue and darker red colors...

 

I don't know if any of you saw my purple interior pieces and purple intercooler air diverter at this years MOTD, but it's purple Duplicolor metalcast.

 

Not only did I SEE it, I have PICS... though not with me...

 

yes please post pictures if you can find them! sounds great!

 

LOL!! The purple metal cast turned out better than I imagined. Actually, I'm impressed overall by the metal cast paint. I used the green metal cast on some of my wife's Celica pieces. I can try to get some pictures posted tomorrow. Thanks Blimey.

 

awesome! cant wait to see! I'm painting mine tomorrow! its a new club! ha

 

i don't use the metalcast undercoat it has too much of a metallic flake in it and when i used it it looked more "metallic" than anodized. rather than the metalcast undercoat i use the duplicolor aluminum high temp engine paint. it makes the parts look nice and smooth and metal- not metallic if that makes sense. then i apply the metalcast on top of that. to me it looks more anodized.

the paint color is actually "aluminum" they should have it at any auto parts store. i also finish it all off with a coat of duplicolor high temp clear.

 

Makes perfect sense! Thanks, Whitey!