QCmustang94 sent me a PM and asked me if I'd make up a set of my fox valve covers, powdercoat them, and send them all the way to Canada. I haven't done a set in a while (and now I remember why) but I figured our Canadian brothers need some cool stuff to. :tongue3: If you guys aren't familiar with the valve covers I make and sell, check out this thread: http://sn95forums.com/index.php/topic,39131.0.html
I had a set of NOS (New Old Stock) fox valve covers laying the garage, with the cork gaskets still glued to them from the factory. I scored these from a friend of mine for $25. I haven't seen a set of new old stock ones... ever. They were dirty, but judging by how clean the gaskets were, and the lack of any oil stains inside the covers, they hadn't been on a car before.
I'm really anal about the prep on stuff I powdercoat, and my chief complaint with all the sets I've done in the past is that the tiny "lip" on the stock fox covers makes it very difficult to get a nice smooth finish in the small areas between those fins. You can see in this picture of some I've done in the past what I'm talking about.
I decided to try something a little different this time. I took a long look and contemplated what I was going to do, then picked and my big ol' angle grinder and went to town. :confused1:
I ground those fins clean off very carefully. The problem with using the angle grinder is it will tear through these valve covers in a hurry, so a little slip up would pretty much mean I had trashed that cover, and would need to start over again. Luckily, I didn't screw any of them up. :grin: So that, combined with 5 hours of sanding (which is why I don't do these very much) and I was able to get the finish I wanted. I like them much better without the little lip on them, and the transition between the top of the cover and the side is much nicer. I'm actually kind of jealous now, and want to do a set like this for my notch motor, and swap them out. However, I don't have much motivation to do this again anytime soon.
Anyway, here's the stock covers:
Here's after the first four hours of sanding with 60 grit. This first part takes forever. The rest of it isn't so bad. It just takes a really long to sand off all the horrible pitting and casting flash to get here. You can see in the second pic that the lips are gone.
I believe this is a close-up of 100 grit.
Here's 150 grit.
Here's 220 grit. The sanding is done at this point.
Here's the aftermath. This takes a retarded amount of sandpaper and sanding discs.
Here they are fresh out of the blast cabinet.
Here they are right before they go in the oven, covered in Gunmetal Gray powder. (which is the most popular color everyone requests, and what my notch motor is done in)
Here they are completed. They just came out of the oven a few minutes ago, and are actually still cooling down. There is an imperfection in one, it appears that something "boiled out" and there's a slight outline that looks like a "run" in one of them. That's really irritating and one of the downfalls of powdercoating cast aluminum stuff, any contaminant that is contained in the casting can eventually "boil out" and show in the coating. Luckily though, it is small and won't really be noticeable when they're on the car. Overall, these are definitely the nicest ones I've ever made.
Now I need to get these bubble-wrapped and boxed up to send off to Canada tomorrow.
Paul.
I had a set of NOS (New Old Stock) fox valve covers laying the garage, with the cork gaskets still glued to them from the factory. I scored these from a friend of mine for $25. I haven't seen a set of new old stock ones... ever. They were dirty, but judging by how clean the gaskets were, and the lack of any oil stains inside the covers, they hadn't been on a car before.
I'm really anal about the prep on stuff I powdercoat, and my chief complaint with all the sets I've done in the past is that the tiny "lip" on the stock fox covers makes it very difficult to get a nice smooth finish in the small areas between those fins. You can see in this picture of some I've done in the past what I'm talking about.
I decided to try something a little different this time. I took a long look and contemplated what I was going to do, then picked and my big ol' angle grinder and went to town. :confused1:
I ground those fins clean off very carefully. The problem with using the angle grinder is it will tear through these valve covers in a hurry, so a little slip up would pretty much mean I had trashed that cover, and would need to start over again. Luckily, I didn't screw any of them up. :grin: So that, combined with 5 hours of sanding (which is why I don't do these very much) and I was able to get the finish I wanted. I like them much better without the little lip on them, and the transition between the top of the cover and the side is much nicer. I'm actually kind of jealous now, and want to do a set like this for my notch motor, and swap them out. However, I don't have much motivation to do this again anytime soon.
Anyway, here's the stock covers:
Here's after the first four hours of sanding with 60 grit. This first part takes forever. The rest of it isn't so bad. It just takes a really long to sand off all the horrible pitting and casting flash to get here. You can see in the second pic that the lips are gone.
I believe this is a close-up of 100 grit.
Here's 150 grit.
Here's 220 grit. The sanding is done at this point.
Here's the aftermath. This takes a retarded amount of sandpaper and sanding discs.
Here they are fresh out of the blast cabinet.
Here they are right before they go in the oven, covered in Gunmetal Gray powder. (which is the most popular color everyone requests, and what my notch motor is done in)
Here they are completed. They just came out of the oven a few minutes ago, and are actually still cooling down. There is an imperfection in one, it appears that something "boiled out" and there's a slight outline that looks like a "run" in one of them. That's really irritating and one of the downfalls of powdercoating cast aluminum stuff, any contaminant that is contained in the casting can eventually "boil out" and show in the coating. Luckily though, it is small and won't really be noticeable when they're on the car. Overall, these are definitely the nicest ones I've ever made.
Now I need to get these bubble-wrapped and boxed up to send off to Canada tomorrow.
Paul.
