Valentine for my Engine..... Look at my Valve Cover....
 

Well, this is the fruit of several hours with the dremel and buffing wheel on my valve cover. Figured since I had the valve cover off, might as well polish it! :D

This was stage 1, testing..... I am not pleased with it so I started in a different spot using a more traditional sanding approach, 160 grit & 320 grit on a power sander, 800 grit on a hand block, then the buffing compound and felt wheel on the dremel. Probably hand buff with Mother's when I'm done with the dremel.



Here are pics of stage 1. I'll have pics of my new method's results sometime soon..........

Please post your results, mine looks bad and would like to clean it up. Thanks

No one looks at mine, and it gets oil on it, so I don't bother...

several hours dremeling? Didn't that thing get HOT? :eek:

You're going to need new motor brushes on that dremel... ;)

hehehehehehehe............ It's an old Dremel MultiPro variable speed, the thing takes a real beating.........

No, it didn't get too hot........ I was using on its medium speed (15k rpms) but with quite a load so it wasn't spinning too fast.......... :D

Me, I want a shiny valve cover........ If it were meant to be black in the first place, it wouldn't bother me....... But that aluminum has been beckoning since day 1. :D

Now look what you did... You made a clean spot.

I have a bench grinder just for that stuff.

One side has a soft wire wheel, will take the oxidized aluminum off without removing much good aluminum. The other side has a cloth wheel, I use rouge on the cloth side, get a mirror finish. If I do it right, it is brighter than chrome and I can see myself.

Be careful with sandpaper on cast aluminum. Castings usually have a smooth skin with more porous metal underneath. If you buff through the skin you will end up with a pinhole mess that will never polish up well.

That's what I was thinking too. Plus you'll have more surface area for dirt to stick to.

So a soft wire wheel doesn't do that like sand paper would? Does the wire wheel have a designation, like sandpaper "grit"?

I think you can buy ones made with nylon or brass wires... They're easy on stuff, usually:rolleyes:

I can vouch for a brass wire wheel being able to remove skin... Ask me how long it takes to no longer have a fingerprint...


Yeah, u made a clean spot, shame on you:D
Looks really nice dude
~Nate

wet sanding?

Well, I ended up putting the cover back on the car unfinished as I just wanted it driveable again...

But, I've learned a few things that I'm gonna do for when I finish the job.....

1. I'm gonna get a buffing wheel for the bench grinder, trying to use a dremel to buff that whole thing is like suicide!!

2. Clean it with solvent before starting, I think I would have had better results that way........

Probably finish the job when the temperature warms a little.......

But, I do have pics of job so far and put on engine.....

These pics are of the cover off of the engine......

And a few pics of the partially finished valve cover installed in the car.