Not sure why the previous thread was closed by the moderator. An explanation would have been nice. So I'm reposting the thread with correct terminology used.

Everytime I open the hood to get access to the engine compartment, the first thing I see is my ugly scratched-up cover. I finally did something about it today. Since I really like the graphite look, I went ahead and shot the entire cover with it. I did think of taping off the black bar in the middle where it says "V6 3000 twin-cam 24 valve" but I figured that there wouldn't be much of a contrast between black and graphite. I want more ideas which is why I want to see what you guys did. Anyhow, it was a quick paint job so here it is.



**edit**
Here's a pic of the cover on my engine. I was letting it dry all night and just put it on this morning. Sorry the engine is kinda filthy...haven't gotten around to steam-cleaning it.



What I've noticed about this graphite color is that it sorta changes depending on lighting. Last nite when I took the first pic, the room lighting is provided by soft-white bulbs. The second picture was taken outside in daylight and now the color shifted. Hmmm....I wonder how a graphite colored Maxima would look like???

lloks nice i like it!

Thanks........

Somehow something is missing, looks too plain. The only thing about taping around the letters so I can paint them a different color is that some of the letters are so tiny that it's hard to tape the dot on the letter A on the words CAM and VALVE, for example. Any ideas?

Paint the whole thing, go over the letters with paint thinner to remove the paint.

looks good. wut kind of paint did you use?

very nice looking, did you use the graphite duplicor paint?

I may just do that today to my valve cover. Very nice work!

I suppose that you would need a high temp paint for this, right?

^^^^being that it is a part of the engine, your hypothesis is most likely correct...

I am get tired of these type of threads, post this in the members ride forum or something.

heres a pic of mine, engine is kinda dirty tho

well, not just cuz it's part of the engine, but since it is under the hood, anything under there can get hot enough that paint endurance could be an issue.

mines red with silver lettering

^ Did exactly what he said

EDIT: Well, not exactly. I actually put vasoline on the lettering and painted the whole thing, and then scraped the paint off the lettering once it was dry.

do you think they might be able to make a pic request forum in the Miscellaneous section, and maybe a seperate show-off section? that would lighten the threads in many sections that annoy some people.

You need red intake couplings!

Sorry to upset you Kevlo...

Anyhow, the paint is Duplicolor Graphite wheel paint. I thoroughly washed and sanded the cover. Then applied 2 base coats of BBQ grill enamel, 2 coats of Duplicolor graphite, and 2 coats of clear.

I think I'll use a tiny paint brush and go over the letters with silver.

Very good idea. I should have done that. So vasoline has more than one useage... HEHEHE

I like it! Looks good. I like the red ones too.



I don't know why people take the time to go into a thread and read it only to post something about how stupid the thread is. If you don't like it stay out.
There is nothing wrong with this thread, at least it has substance unlike some BS like.... "which should I do" or "im going to..." kind of crap.

Anyway

i am gona shave the letters off and just have the nissan there

I really like that idea. Quite a few threads are picture requests, and while they are a nessesary evil, and I'll admit are fun to look at at times, it would seem to make sense to put up a forum for it.

Not painted, but not OEM....

I don't think we want to know what you use it for....

polished and painted

Wow.......what a difference a polished valve cover makes to the fascia. I'm going to do that later...thanks.

verry smooth ^


i wish i would have known to use the vasoline when i did mine, instead i used an exacto knife and masked the little letters off. it took wayyy longer then it should have knowing i had a perfectly good alternative in my medicine cabinet.

s0ber-->>> NEAT~~~~!!!!

im doing that this weekend black and silver + polishing my valve cover and possibly beginning my quest to polish intake manifold.....

What kind of paint was used??

Nice s0ber, I'm really digging the polished valve cover. Did you guys have to remove the cover or can it be polished in place? The only thing I would be worried about when removing the valve cover is that when you reinstall it back, the gasket will never seat right anymore. That might cause an oil leak which then would require new gaskets to be put in.

I removed it 2 times, reused the gasket, the gasket is NEW tho, its not the old one, if you still have the 10yr old gaskets I would recommend replacing them anyways... There like $10

yea i am polishing one very soon as well def replace the gasket and make sure you dont snap the bolts you will be in trouble.

Mine are new but they've been reused twice. When the new gasket were initially installed, another mechanic did it for me (front and back covers). But he did such a crappy job seating the gaskets properly so I had to open up everything again and do it myself the second time. That's what I get for paying someone else to do it thinking I'll be saving myself time to do other more important things.

how do you steam clean your engine to make it look really clean and shiny

I kind of went overboard (spent a lot)but i love the way mine looks

what exactly did you do? hard to tell without a close up pic. looks good though!

s0ber-> what paint did u use? did u sand it? (i really don't know much about paint and stuff)
plus how did u manage to get those a/c pipes shine like that? just polish?

Duplicolor Engine Enamel Black.... I didn't sand it, it has like 6 coats of black on it and like 4 coats of clear...

The A/C lines I just polished them up with some mothers, came out bling..

whoa thats hot, so its wheel paint right? im going for white or blue. and another thing, whered you get those red w/e thats in the engine....lol sorry dont kno wtf its called maybe a dressup kit...whered you get them MAXRB8 nd Magikone