Valve Covers

[megachrome]

Good day!

I am a new owner of an immaculate 450 SLC.
It is a southern California car, with 129,000 miles, and came with a stack of reciepts from the previous owner that showed him to be a true obsessive!

I'm sure I will have many questions in the future, but for today, I am wondering about the original color of the valve covers.
On mine they have a transparent gold color, which is starting to peel. Is this an original coloring?
All of the engine shots that I am finding on-line show them with bare metal.

Many Thanks!

My 4.5, which has the same engine came with bare metal valve covers. All of the 4.5s that I have seem have come with bare metal covers also.
Tim

[Tomguy]

Stock is bare metal, indeed.

I polished my covers to a nice shine and then I put a clearcoat on them - when this clearcoat gets any oil on it, that part of it turns yellow! Also it's yellow in the hotter spots. Perhaps this is what happened to yours?

[Litton]

Somewhere MB started using that yellowish preservative stuff that coats the inside of my 126 engine room. I suspect that is what you're seeing.

[j9fd3s]

cosmoline, they spray it on so it wont rust on the boat ride over. it turns yellow with age

[megachrome]

Many thanks for your replies. I am attempting to attach a photo of the covers.

It may be a yellowed clearcoat. What do you think?

[WANT '71 280SEL]

you could try paint thinner.
David

[kpb]

Hey DDH, you got that straight on Bambo's engine(s). Never seen such a thing outside a car show. Wonder how he gets that alloy to hold the shine. Gregg, are you listening?? Tell us!

[JMela]

Here's a method to polish up alloy engine parts, posted by Greg Stone on one of the 6.3 pages.

"Polishing the aluminum castings in the engine room is basically removing unnecessary metal in order to gain an aesthetically pleasing result. To this end, I assembled the following tools and materials:
1. Eastwood Co.'s manifold polishing kit and extra abrasives
2. Foredom 1/4hp flex shaft tool (air die grinder works as well)
3. hacksaw
4. assorted files including miniatures
5. 1/4" buffing arbor assorted cotton buffs
6. Tripoli compound Wet-or-Dry paper: 80,120,150,180,220,320,400,600
7. Safety goggles
8. Respiratory protection
9. about 100lbs of LAVA soap

Any sculpting you decide to do such as streamlining square corners should be begun with the hacksaw, if necessary, then continuing with the files and grinder, and finished off with the appropriate grades of paper. Aluminum tends to foul files and the bits of metal that stick in the teeth will gall, or gouge the work, so the file must be kept clean.

If you are new to finishing, remember to always work from coarse to fine grades, sanding until the scratches of the previous grade are completely removed before moving to the next finer grade. Do not skip grades. To be certain that all scratches are removed, good light is essential. If possible, work outdoors or in a very well lit work area, and inspect your work in sunlight.

Preservation of detail is paramount to a good polish. The sharp angles of the tristar facets and its surrounding ring must not be softened; A good spot to judge the quality of a polish on the Mercedes cam cover is the oomlaut in ZUNDFOLGE. It must still be sharp. These details can only be retained by careful use of the needle files and sandpaper wrapped around small mandrels.

The large, relatively smooth surfaces with only the pebble-grain of the casting are probably best done with wet sanding by hand. I started out using the grinder, but it seems that it was of no real advantage here.

The final finish is up to the individual. I went for a brilliant mirror finish initially, but found that it didn't look right. I ended up going over it with 600 wet in a circular motion to give a slightly matte or frosted finish and then hitting it occasionally with Brasso or Wenol. It is reminiscent of the finish on alloy motorcycle and sportscar motors of the '30s.

As I said before, this is incredibly dirty work, but if you pay attention to details, be patient, and cut no corners, the result will be very satisfying."

[megachrome]

Many thanks to all!

Unfortunately, I have a good deal of experience in polishing aluminum bits with the Jag. Looks like I'm in for a bit more!

[Gregg Bambo Jr.]

I am back on line! I've been gone for awhile as my computor actually exploded (went "bang" due to a capacitor letting loose and distroying my motherboard) and I lost most of my info. Jmela's previous thread is discriptive of what I did to polish the valve covers on my cars. To maintain the shine I use "Zoop Seal" aluminum sealer which you can investigate on www.zoop.com . It is a laborious process for anything larger than a valve cover and the product is not cheap. It apparently works, as I have not had to polish either my MBZ or Volvo valve covers in the past year.

[j9fd3s]

you have more patience than i do good sir .

http://www.zoops.com/zoopseal.asp

[Tomguy]

Well, not only more patience, but more money... at least I wouldn't spend ~$130 for that!

And besides, I have a V8, I'm attempting to polish the covers now but it's taking forever to do just ONE... TWO? Jeez, I dont think I'm patient enough! IF I do decide to finish them I'll just use a better clearcoat than I did the first time around.

[Gregg Bambo Jr.]

The package cost $89 when a five us in our car club shared the cost awhile back. It covers 75 square feet of surface which of course was much too much for one individual unless you own a polishing shop. I estimate one valve cover only requires at the most two square feet. A club purchase would be the way to go so that all could share and reduce the expense.

[cth350]

I just sent them a query for a volume club purchase, lets see what happens. -CTH