Restoring Cam Covers

[hugh]

Hey Guys,

I would have thought that there would be a question already answered regarding this, but I have searched, and found nothing.

My cam covers are looking like shit and I was hoping to restore them to their original shiny state...

Question is, how?

I don't want to paint them, and I'm afraid that if I wire brush/drill them, it ill just come up heaps scratched and then later rust...

[70XIN]

Well the cam covers won't rust, being alloy (not steel) .. so you're fine there

But yeah, wire brushes still take forever to get them good. I would suggest sandblasting/media blasting, just be careful that you wash them a million times afterwards, because little bits of crap can get stuck in the cam cover with the baffle in it

You could also get them cold-bathed at an engine reco joint

[hugh]

thanks dude...wire brush on the drill, doesn't take too long, I do it on every surface before a gasket goes on, good to know it wont rust, I assumed it was alloy, wasn't sure though...

just hoping it doesn't scratch it up too much, might try a small little area first...rather do something easy like that, that I can do at home rather than be bothered to take it anywhere..

[sundee]

dont hit it with a wire brush!! u will scratch the crap out of it!! your better off to hit it with some paint stripper, then sand it with some wet n dry.

u want them looking new but u dont want to paint them? it will take you all of half an hour to prep and paint them!.
if u want the writing a different colour, paint the letters 1st, then let it dry, then place masking tape over the letters, then get a stanley knife blade and cut around the letter edges, once done, spray the rest of the rocker cover, then peel the tape off the letters,
it will be worth it and it will look sick!

[MINIHORSE]

crinkle red wins almost everytime

[Gunner]

crinkle black, with blue or silver writing

[todd]

crinkle black with silver writing ftw. doing mine this week too. just sand them back to metal, whack some etch primer, then sand, then normal primer, then sand, then paint. dry. bolt on. la fin.

[ke_70]

do u use normal paint or heat proof stuff?

[todd]

heat proof. it limits your choices of colour, but the finish will stay nicer for longer. maybe the heatproof stuff has built in primer? now i think about it it might.

[Nikkojoe]

Don't have to use tape to mask out the letters, just use some grease on a cotton tip.

I used wire wheel on mine, does not come up scratched at all after painting with VHT enamel.

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/1/1/0/20279.jpg

[pen15]

^^^^^ looks insane love it do mine please lol

[AE092]

http://i31.tinypic.com/246oxad.jpg
Mine painted high temp cherry red

On topic: Professional chemical strippers do a really good job stripping all things paint. I had a set of wheels with clear coat coming off, dropped it off at the chemical strippers and was returned them looking bare metal.

Wouldn't cost too much either I would imagine.

[hitoriko]

just take your time and they will look a million bucks (see above)

[sundee]

taping gives a clean crisp lines on the letters, as pic above

[FAST EDDIE]

scourer and 2 pack paint simple

[zookieboi]

im gunna do mine in an off white. silver writing.

[stahlz_ae86]

Did mine by using a grinding wheel then flap disk to remove the lettering and used a sander to smooth both covers flat and painted high temp pressure pack black. They look different, kinda stealthy i like it.

I have also noticed that in the two above pics as good as they do actually looked being restored so well the cast lines are still visible around the outside edges at the bottom and it stands out like dogs balls.

[FAST EDDIE]

u can also polish them!!!

[blinded]

Has anyone got pictures of polished covers but with painted writing? Would be interesting to see what that looks like. Bit different to the usual painted cover with polished lettering.


Also stahlz, wanna chuck up a picture of your covers?

[Nikkojoe]

I was going for the stock look so having the factory cast mark adds to it. Me attempting auto salon quality would yield a lot different results :)

^^ ive got polished gze with writing if you want to see, ill find a pic

[Nikkojoe]

Not the best pics
http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/1/1/0/1396.jpg
http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/1/1/0/1395.jpg

[blinded]

Looks good, got me sold.

Wonder if Mr Policeman would be attracted to them though because they are shiny?

[stahlz_ae86]

Also stahlz, wanna chuck up a picture of your covers?

Will do tomorrow arvo as I'll have the camera out in the shed tomorrow taking photo's of other stuff.

[stahlz_ae86]

Polished cover and painted writing would be difficult on anything that isn't GZE as the NA ones are all raised letters making it near impossible to polish in the corners next to the letters.

[Nikkojoe]

Not impossible but extremely time consuming :)

Going to try something different on the smallport build. The scheme will probably reflect the choice of exterior colour on the car :)

[stahlz_ae86]

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/2/9/5/547391.jpg

Here's a pic, I'm probably going to try smooth out the inlet cover a bit better then get them blasted and I'll either polish them or re-paint them flat black again or maybe even silver. Undecided still.

[blinded]

http://www.pixorhost.net/upload/71gikumiy6f7f48izw4u46e6a841w4zfs22mfgmmluj2jk61pw .jpg

How I ended up doing mine. Polishing would have taken far too long, and taken way too much effort haha!

[Dylan]

very nice, looks just like new

[Group A]

I want mine to look factory, does anyone know what the correct silver paint code is?

[evil86]

im just gonan leave my dirty:)

[FAST EDDIE]

what is the origional paint scheme for bigport jdm ae86 4ag covers?????

[stahlz_ae86]

Same as an AE82 bluetop I think.

[Tim.duncan]

toyota's answer to v-tech

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/2/9/31466.jpg

[johl]

lol^^^^^^