B-Series Valve/Rocker Cover Painting

[ace_az]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!

BEFORE



Aim:Painting a Honda B-series valve cover.

Required:

1) Masking Tape
2) Scourer or something alike
3) Paint Stripper
4) Sand Paper
5) Metal Polish
6) Grease
7) Wax and Grease Remover
8) Stanley Knife
9) Paint Scraper
10) High Temperature Enamel Paint & Gloss



Steps:

1) First of all you have to remove the valve cover, probably best looking through a service manual. Pretty simple process. In general you have to remove the following:
-Bolts and Nuts from the cover itself. (Will need a 10mm Socket wrench)
-Spark Plug Cover and Leads
-Air Sensor Hose
-Oil Cap

2) Give the Cover a good clean to remove all excess oil etc. Now apply the paint stripper to the cover and use the scraper to take off all of the previous paint. As it all slowly comes off you will realise they'll be small bits left behind so use the scourer to get all those hard bits off.

3) This process is not needed, but I had some black spots left behind on the cover so I use a bit of metal polish to get rid of whatever I could.

4) After all the paint is removed, use some fine sand paper to make the surface smoother for a better finish. Use a damp cloth to remove all the dust left behind.

5) Now your ready to prep your cover for painting. This process takes a while, so be patient. Cover all the neccessary holes with masking tape (see picture) so paint cannot get in. For this process I covered the holes with a bigger piece of masking tape and used a knife to cut around.

6) This step is optional and very self opinionated. I covered the VTEC and Honda badge with masking tape and cut around it. This was not as easy for the 'dohc' and 'honda' so i left it to be painted and later on might just scrape off the paint.

THIS IS HOW IT SHOULD LOOK BEFORE PAINTING


7) After ever thing is covered, it's time to paint. It will take about 4 - 6 coats, with about 20mins drying time in-between. I applied my coats horizontally, vertically and diagonally to get a nice even paint finish.

8) Let the paint dry a considerable amount and then apply approximately 3 coats of the gloss finish, just to bring out the colour that little bit more.

9) Allow the cover to dry for about 48hrs.

FINAL



Other comments:
- Always best to do this on a sunny day with with no wind.
- Spray from about a 30cm distance.
- Be careful of overspray and little bits that come out of a spray can. SHAKE WELL!
- Will get some better pictures up of the final product with the tape off and the cover actually on the car!

[mikey72]

Great writeup mate!

Only think i could add is if you don't wanna spend time covering the letter you can just spray them and sand them back once dry.

Also, never spray when it's humid!

[ace_az]

Thanks mate!

Yeah agreed, even if you don't wanna sand them back later, you can cover the letters with lipstick/grease/lip balm before spraying and wipe it off after.

Was planning on doing this but got lazy.

[dougie_504]

Nice work mate. Show us finished pics

[GaDgeT-CRX]

Nice work mate, top job! Did my D-series cover a few weeks back thx to dougie's spare, came out a treat

[dougie_504]

So hot bro, I hope you stick to D so we can see it in the bay!

Good picture because you can see you've preserved the writing and holes well

[vtecing]

When I sprayed my sr20 I just used a bastard file to sand the letters back, looked like factory standard quallity. If you tape stuff it can peel extra paint off