[General] How To Paint your Engine Cover

[azazeldeath]

Slight thread dig, but I thought I would offer some advice for painting engine covers. If you want to leave parts unpainted (like taping them up) and its a rather complex shape you can use grease to 'paint' the area you want unpainted in grease, personally I used ear cleaners for the fine detail.

I did it for my VZ Alloytec covers. I wanted all of the V6 Alloytec left black, and some other parts black while painting the rest Impulse Blue.

I just left the paint to dry, grabbed a rag and wiped off the grease. Left the area paint free.

 

[bloomers]

I just left the paint to dry, grabbed a rag and wiped off the grease. Left the area paint free.

What was the edge of the paint line like? I suppose it would depend on how carefully the grease was applied and how soon after drying it was removed.

 

[Drawnnite]

so anyway. i should have had this finished but ran into a problem.
painting the top stripes i messed up, and trying to correct ruined the whole job. have sanded back and have started to respray.

however i went to the paintshop and asked if they do chrome paint in tins, so the same problem wouldnt happen.
the closest they had was this. and it came up exactly the same as chrome.
only bought a sampler tin (shown is 4L tin), but there is plenty in there, plus i have some other project planned for it.

so if your ever looking for chrome paint in a tin. there it is =P
needs to be the "aluminium" colour though

 

[Mk2]

Can you post a couple of photos of your cover in this chrome-like paint?

 

[azazeldeath]

What was the edge of the paint line like? I suppose it would depend on how carefully the grease was applied and how soon after drying it was removed.

The edges were perfect. It was almost as good as taping, except saved alot of time for the fine detail (I think for the curves tape would have made the finish bad).

 

[Drawnnite]

Can you post a couple of photos of your cover in this chrome-like paint?

probably will not have the pic of the chrome on the cover, but i have tested it elsewhere next to the spray chrome.
ill get a pic of it by the weekend and post it up.

 

[Drawnnite]

Can you post a couple of photos of your cover in this chrome-like paint?

ok so finally got the pics off my phones.

first one is a bit average because of flash but shows the 3 main colours.
the chrome from the rustkill paint is on the left, but is made brighter by the flash.
right is the from a spray can. it comes out exactly the same.



this second pic shows how the chrome will look on the black. as you can see i made a mistake and it didnt go as i had planned. thus sanded it all back and am repainting it now. hope to have it all done by next weekend
but hopefully gives a rough idea of how it will look near the end.
also the V6 part is still taped. if your wondering why it looks wierd.

 

[Drawnnite]

just been spraying and did some runs too thick. bloody spray can kept cutting out halfway through and so forth. definately wish i had a proper spray kit.
made it half presentable and i am not going to redo for a 3rd time =P
will get pics up once dry and youll see why it is best to prime before painting.

its a bit of a shame but i guess it is going in an average engine bay, youll never see it anyway =P

 

[Drawnnite]

so anyway. update on how it looks.
just requires a bit of fancy texta work. clear coat and im done with it.
the chrome does hide some of the imperfections.

(click for bigger view)



also planning on doing this to some rocker covers. might have to go search for these next weekend at pickapart or so on.
should look all good after that.

 

[BuckeTs]

nice work mate! I've laid 3 coats of satin black on mine so far... but ive been a slackarse since and haven't done anything for a couple of weeks. Might get into it this weekend again.