I recently saw a picture of a built VQ35 with wrinkle red valve covers. I got hooked on the look, and although I wanted to do red, I scored a can of Krylon Black Wrinkle Paint at Advance Auto for $0.95. So I tested it out.

This is a short how-to on the steps to paint your Valve Cover. Its pretty straightforward, the can itself describes the painting...

Prep
1. Remove the Valve cover. There are 10 or 12 10mm bolts, along with the 6 coilpack screws, and 2 hoses.
2. Remove the gasket from the cover if its on there.
3. Wash the outside of the valve cover, I used Simple Green and Goo Gone. The combo removed all of the grease and dirt, with an old sponge.
4. Dry. Be sure all the water is soaked up/gone.

Side note: I did not mask anything off. I didnt worry about the brass fittings, and I made sure not to coat the underside of the cover. You can if you are so inclined to.

Painting
5. Start with a single light coat. Within 5 minutes, apply another coat, this time, apply until the paint starts to look "wet", but not too heavy.
6. Apply 2 more coats, both 5 minutes after the other, this time make sure they look "wet".
7. Allow to air dry for about 30 minutes and carefully remove from your painting area

**BE CAREFUL! The paint will still be "soft" even during curing. I waited 24 hours and I could still fingerprint the paint with enough pressure**

Curing
8. Turn the oven on bake to 200. Put it on the middle rack, and leave it in for 10 to 15 minutes.
9. Remove, let sit for at least 4 hours(mine sat overnight). Repeat step 8, oven on bake at 200 for 10 to 15 minutes.
(It wont smell that pleasant, its going to smell like burning paint... dont worry, as long as its not literally melting, bubbling or burning, it will be fine)
10. Remove and let sit for at least 4 hours.
11. Reinstall and enjoy.


***I DO NOT recommend you use you car to cure it, instead of the oven! The paint is really soft before curing, the slightest hit could nick it. I also dont know how the oil and grease would react with the curing process!!***



Final Product: (click on images for larger pics)








BEFORE:


AFTER:

 

looks bueno. i'm a big fan of wrinkle finish.

 

i like that too! i think imma try it on my stock headers when i put them back on. (damn xspower headers are all screwed up). u think itll withstand the temps?

 

dude i found some vht wrinkle paint at advance the other day and wanted to try it out and didnt know how it would look but now that i know it looks good imma end up doing my spare valve cover in the vht wrinkle.

looks hella good btw

 

This Krylon isn't temp rated at all. However, I painted the spark plug cover probably... 10 months ago easily, with regular paint off the Walmart shelf. It hasnt chipped, melted or anything. Good as day 1.

VHT does make some 1500* paint, Advance auto carries Red, Red orange, Black and Silver, as far as I know.

 

ill check em out tomorrow (i work at advance, lol). we also carry niteshades on the shelf now!

 

i doubt it will hold up.

 

looks good man might have to do it with the 3.5...

I wonder how it would look on the timing cover

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................................

and damn those florida cars look clean....

 

very nice kyle!

 

Thanks Sam!


Locknuts, I thought about that. I am going to paint the 00VI with it, to make it match perfectly. Then I will go from there to see if I want to do the TC or just polish it up to more of a shine.

 

bigtime dirt magnet & hard to keep clean...yeah it looks great when fresh & clean...but later........

 

that looks hawt....even though i saw it before you posted it here

 

i work at advance auto in mass. and we carry some new vht stuff...the spray tinty **** that MaximaSpd85 was talkin bout and some other ****

 

thats a mighty fine lookin engine bay! and my god schnazzzy paint job!!

thanks for the Howto!! hope it holds up! please update us! infact. why not have someone test and see how hot the VC's actually get on a Maxima after some heavy driving, and than heat the temp of the over up to around that range, after its been fully cured and see!

 

thas looks good my is black whit maxima latters it look good tho but you should it use 500 degree paint i dont that tha one u use is going to last long idk

 

wat?

 

dude...wait...wat?

and loose the pics of OTHER people's cars in your sig. They aren't your cars.

and your sig quote is garbage too, my parents have two honda's, they are great cars. Hell I would buy that new Honda Accord coupe if I could.

 

:metalmax: i gotta stop leaving OT

 

lolololol

and Kyle, my man, maddddd props on the paint that's friggin sexy!!

 

That is sexy.

 

It wouldt..I have had quite a few sets of headers high temp painted [1500 Paint] and it eventually still peels up.If you want to do headers, Do it the right way.get them ceramic coated. heres what it looks like...
Ceramic coating has a dual purpose [imo].It protects the motor in take or whatever you're coating from heat soak and it has a nice looking finish..Like chrome-ish except actually has a purpose.

 

Very creative.Will be trying this pretty soon.

 

Nice!!!!!!!

 

man u were my inspiration for doing mine here is how mine came out.


i was so happy with the result i did my upper intake.

 

Looks good. In the second pic they look more glossy. Are they still wet or did you put a gloss over the wrinkle paint?

 

i'd do this but i dont have a spare oven...

 

holy fap...one other thing i'm amazed at, how did u score Krylon Paint at .95?

 

awesome!!! im gonna do this i theenk

 

second pic they were still drying and i used vht brand wrinkle paint it was like 9 bucks for the can.. and i didnt stick mine in the oven lol i used a hair dryer to dry it up took bout a hour or so..had a baby in the house so i couldnt be smellin up the house so i had to go outside with the dryer.

 

Not necessary with the Krylon paint, though it will take it a few hours to dry and wrinkle.

Advanced had it on clearance.

 

how gay i wish ours would have krylon on clearance lol

 

Added to HowTo's under "Engine".

 

Thanks Ilya!

 

Np bro.

 

Powder Coat it

 

^^ this looks 100% better than powder coating.

 

i agree. Hey MOF, how's the chip resistance compared to regular spray paint?

 

Mine still looks like the day I painted it. No chipping, no fading or anything. Still looks good. It seemed to be pretty bonded to the metal as well.

 

Has anyone ever seen the "hammered" paint? I beleive its made by rustoleum and I've got it at menards, we used it to paint a welder at work, it has a very cool textured look. The wrinkle finish looks great, but I wonder if the hammered paint would not trap the dirt as much as wrinkle. just my $.02

 

If the only reason you go hammered over wrinkle is because of the dirt, dont. I havent washed my bay since I painted this and it still looks clean. No stains or anything.

That being said, the hammered would just look like its been painted, I dont think it would really have much texture to it. Never know though!