I am looking to polish my valve cover to get a nice shiny look. Thing is I am not completly sure on how to do this. What I think I will need to do is sand down the valve cover with a series of sand papers. After that i will use a polishing compound with either a cloth or some sort of buffing tool. Will I need to take the valve cover off to do this? If so will i need to replace any gaskets?

 

To do the whole thing...you would have to remove it..but if you're just worried about the top and front area...I'm sure you could do that without removing it.

 

actually unless you have some scratches you only need to sand with maybe 200 and 800 grit. Then the best way to buff it is to use a die grinder with a buffer wheel.

 

if i take the whole thing off will i need to replace gaskets?

 

best to do so!

 

so where do i go about getting a gasket for the front valve cover? how much are they?

 

Is a die grinder anything like a Dremel tool??

 

Once you have it done, be sure to post some pics of it. good luck with it.

 

sort of I suppose, except it will handle much larger atatchments, has more power and runs of compressed air.

 

Ahh...all I have is a Dremel tool and an orbital sander. The Dremel comes in handy with the small headed bits to polish the tight spots (& there are lots of those!). I need to do a lot more polishing before the upper plenum looks evenly shiny.

 

I removed my valve cover and sanded it with grits of 60, 80, 100, 200, 300, 600 wet,800 wet, 1000 wet, 1500 wet and then 2000 wet.
Then used some Mothers metal polish with a rag and several applications. Now it's like a mirror. Start to finish was about 12 hours total.

Working on my intake manifold now which is a LOT harder, but doable.

ny96max is the king of polishing and also who I got all my info from before getting started.

 

just did it, doesnt come out chrome looking but it is much shinier, will try to get pics up soon, i used a dremel with various sanding / gringing bits, and polishing compound, came out niuce

 

Two Qs:
- Did you polish by hand or sander (or both)?
- Does "wet" sandpaper just mean that you need to rinse it with water now & then to get rid of the grit?

 

- I did it all by hand
- Wet sandpaper is just that, sandpaper used when wet. Go to any auto parts store and they will have it, it's black, not brown. I got it at Pep Boys. Regular sandpaper will not work when wet, it will get soft and fall apart. Get sandpaper made for wet sanding, spray the valve cover with water, and get sanding.

 

Thx.

 

Could you post pics? I was checkig out your cardomain site and wanted to know what kind of grill you had in the lower valence.

 

No pics yet. Once the weather is nice, I'm taking a ton of new pics for my site. Those pics are very old and outdated, my Max is a lot different now.

That's a Trenz valence. I sold it a couple months ago

 

I like it

 

check my homepage for pics, all i used was a dremel, input appreciated

 

Looks clean, but not nearly as smooth or shiney as it gets with hours of sandpaper and polish.
It comes out to a mirror finish...

That looks alright