Powder-Coated Valve Covers:

[Captain D]

Hello guys,'

I recently had my M/T valve covers powder-coated and the gentleman at the shop suggested that to help give the valve covers more of the wrinkle look, that I could sand the powder-coating off of the raised letters: M/T and the lines running along side the valve covers.

Has anyone does this, if so, what did you use (electric sander or by hand), and how well did they turn out? Not saying that I'm actually going to do it for sure just yet, but I'm curious to see your experiences...

Thank you for any responses and/or pics,
Aaron

[GreenMachine]

   They make the black wrinkle powdercoat. I did a pair of M/T's that way. Normally I wouldn't have powdercoated them, but they had alot of pitting. I just powdercoated the whole thing and figured I'd just sand down the top and voila. But the powdercoat was hard to sand through, maybe if you had a belt sander it would be easier? I started with sand paper on a sanding block, then I got impatient and used a die grinder with a Roloc disc. That worked fast but made the fins uneven and I had to follow up with the sanding block again. Then I spent more time polishing the tops of the fins. If I had to do it over, I would mask off the fins and the M/T before powdercoating. It would be time consuming, but faster then the way I did it. Sorry no pics of them as I ended up getiing rid of them in favor of unpainted ones that I plan on polishing.

[69bronzeT5]

I plan on doing this with mine....however I'll be using high heat spray paint as I can't afford powdercoating. I love the look of them when they are done (not mine pictured).

[bull]

You can always tape off the fins so they don't get paint on them when they powdercoat. It would be a lot of work but it would save you a lot of work and headaches later.

[Captain D]

Thank you fellas for the responses,

Looking at the powder-coated valve covers that I have here, they would look good either way I suppose. What keeps me from sanding along the lines n' the raised lettering is the fear of messing it up. I'd like to go for it, but maybe I'll practice sanding some of the over-spray underneath of the valve covers first in order to get a feel for it  .

Thank you again & all the best,
Aaron

[Captain D]

BTW - I do like the look of those back M/T valve covers  . I have a black engine bay...it it wasn't black, I probably would have made mine to look like them. I was just trying to avoid too much dark/black shades in there. But, they look awesome. Below is a link to what mine look like (minus where the breather holes are). To see them, scroll down to the third set on the page:

http://powdercoatingit.com/ValveCovers.htm

While I'm thinking of it (I know that this may be a dumb question to ask, but just to ask for the sake of asking), if I sand off the powder-coating, say along the raised lettering and lines for the wrinkle look, will the powder-coating eventually begin to peel away after awhile?

Thank you again for your time!
Aaron