Valve Cover!!

[Stevie Boy]

I've been on this for a few nights now and thought I'd share my progress as I went along.

This is the picture of when I first got the VC, gave it some very light sanding with 180 grit just to highlight a small bit of cleaning!!



A few hours more sanding with 180 grit:





Now into the 240 grit stage:



Not happy with black marks, back to 120 for some serious punishment!!:



This is my progress up till 11pm on 7th October!! I shall be kicking the ass off this thing over the weekend, I must have this on my car by thursday next week, OMG!!

This is going to look like a mirror when it is finished, I hope fraychild likes the way it is panning out!!

[markbuts3]

I see dead people Steve......lol

They'll work with nissanprimera.net m8...

[Stevie Boy]

Oh nooo, not the dreaded sexy red X!! I have linked to npoc, I guess I will need to change the hosting location then!!

[markbuts3]

Originally posted by Stevie Boy
Oh nooo, not the dreaded sexy red X!! I have linked to npoc, I guess I will need to change the hosting location then!!

Sorted m8.....look up..



And now deleted......PMSL..

[Stevie Boy]

Thanks Mark, I changed my mapping to nissanprimera.net so maybe we can see two sets of the same pics now!! I dunno if you can see mine or not, obviously I can from here but not sure if the rest of the world can!!

[Stevie Boy]

Nobody cares ehough to reply!!

[ducom7]

valve cover is coming out nicely........cant wait to see it finished.

[sihayton]

Looking good Steve - will look mint with all the rest of the shiny stuff you have in your engine bay

[Trag]

Its coming along...... Try using a higher grit sandpaper to get those lines aout the valvecover.

I just snag a RR valve cover so il be doing the same sort of.

[Stevie Boy]

Yeah cheers m8, the higher grits will come later when I've earned the right to use them! Getting all of the black dots and marks out of this is proving to be very difficult but I can't progress until I have done it. I am struggling to get right into the spark plug area also. Any tips for that, the gaps between the sides and the plug holes and sooooo small!!

[Koojo]

So you plan on just using sand paper to get a high polished shine? Or are you going to paint it?

[Stevie Boy]

No paint, gonna sand it till it is as perfect as possible then buff it till it looks like a mirror. No paint whatsoever, just pure shine!!

[Ericdd]

I had a seriously hard time getting the black marks out and getting in between the spark plug holes. I just did the best I could with the spark plugs, since it's hard to see anyway. I shaved the letters off my VC and it made it even more difficult to get out the black dots. It left a ghost image of the letters no matter how much I sanded. Good luck, it took me for ever to get good.

[trbobrk]

That looks fun! You doing it all by hand?

[Stevie Boy]

Yeah mate, all by hand. I did a quick blast over with an electric sander but it left my hand feeling like it was get electric shocks, didn't like that!! Horrible twitchy feeling coz of all the vibrations!! So yep, all by hand and it's not fun it's painstaking and tiring work!! Thanks Eric, now I know I am truly up against it on this job!! I have nailed the black dots out of the top, it's the sides that are proving hard!!

[Koojo]

Damn man, thats tedious work doing it all by hand. Keep us updated every step of the way.

[Ericdd]

Originally posted by Stevie Boy
Yeah mate, all by hand. I did a quick blast over with an electric sander but it left my hand feeling like it was get electric shocks, didn't like that!! Horrible twitchy feeling coz of all the vibrations!! So yep, all by hand and it's not fun it's painstaking and tiring work!! Thanks Eric, now I know I am truly up against it on this job!! I have nailed the black dots out of the top, it's the sides that are proving hard!!

yeah I did mine by hand too, not fun. Do yourself a favor and take a good look at what is really seen. Do a quick polish on the back sides and in the spark plug valley and polish the shit out of the top and front. it's not worth the blisters if you can't even see it.

[mustang dude]

Originally posted by Stevie Boy
Yeah mate, all by hand. I did a quick blast over with an electric sander but it left my hand feeling like it was get electric shocks, didn't like that!! Horrible twitchy feeling coz of all the vibrations!! So yep, all by hand and it's not fun it's painstaking and tiring work!! Thanks Eric, now I know I am truly up against it on this job!! I have nailed the black dots out of the top, it's the sides that are proving hard!!

For the top and sides a AIR orbital sander is you friend.. the vibrating sanders are mainly for woodworking.. orbital and random orbital are more for metal working like body work and polishing.. might want to check with the guy who runs TRG to see how he polishes his... since he isn't in the polishing business anymore, he might be more inclined to give up some secrets he has found in the past...

Scott

[T.I]

Anybody got an extra VC? I'm definatly in the mood to give this a try!

Edit: Ohh ya forgot it looks pimp as hell man keep it up! Hopefully it'll come out the way you want it too.

[Stevie Boy]

Latest pics from tonights work. I am now on 320 grit, yay!! I've been giving this some heavy sanding with 240 grit and now been able to move onto 320, my arm hurts big time!! The 320 is really starting to take out the heavy scratches left by the 180 and 240 grits however, I only had the energy to do a small amount of 320 tonight so tomorrow this should be looking a lot smoother.