Anyone repainted their M50 valve cover? Black or Silver? Got pix?

[RobPatt]

...was going to replace that gasket today (it's been seeping oil for forever now...). I may sandblast, prime, and paint cover a nice flat black, or perhaps flat silver (high-temp of course).... wondered if anyone's done it, how it turned out. Of course the main exposed area is out front over the vanos, but the black might look nice as it'll match the plastic covering and fan shroud....? have a good weekend - Rob N.W. Florida '93 525ia @130K

[DanDombrowski]

...was going to replace that gasket today (it's been seeping oil for forever now...). I may sandblast, prime, and paint cover a nice flat black, or perhaps flat silver (high-temp of course).... wondered if anyone's done it, how it turned out. Of course the main exposed area is out front over the vanos, but the black might look nice as it'll match the plastic covering and fan shroud....? have a good weekend - Rob N.W. Florida '93 525ia @130K

Nothing like this, right?

http://plaza.ufl.edu/volvo240/valvecover.htm

[ryan roopnarine]

i have a picture from ebay of a m50 with a plastic-black matching valve cover. i asked (winfred, bill, et al) what the criterion (production date and such) was for this item being painted black. IIRC, i don't think either winfred or bill said they had ever seen it that color on a m50, a m52 or later might be a different story. if i could find it, id show it to you, it looks really nice. if i ever get around to doing it, i'd really like to invest the effort in getting it to look the "engine trim" black (bondo and all that crud).

[ryan roopnarine]

here's the original post

http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=2863

the picture there doesn't show it, buuuttttt, the ebay seller page had a pic with the vanos hump showing, and it was the same color as the trim. nice looking, isn't it.

[winfred]

black plastic with the oil cap in the front is the m52 valve cover, it will fit the vanos m50 but you need the later coils too as the bmw design bastards ever so slightly moved the studs closer together and the older coils won't fit

i have a picture from ebay of a m50 with a plastic-black matching valve cover. i asked (winfred, bill, et al) what the criterion (production date and such) was for this item being painted black. IIRC, i don't think either winfred or bill said they had ever seen it that color on a m50, a m52 or later might be a different story. if i could find it, id show it to you, it looks really nice. if i ever get around to doing it, i'd really like to invest the effort in getting it to look the "engine trim" black (bondo and all that crud).

[RobPatt]

and although mine is a '93 525i like in the write-up, I've got no where near the corrosion, peeling, etc... my visible surfaces are real nice and smooth. I'm thinking I'm going to do it. Except I'll primer mine after blasting, if I can find a high-temp primer.... AND I think I'll just clean the interior w/parts cleaner and not blast it.. Thanks. Need to get me a digicam so I can post some nice pix. -Rob

Nothing like this, right?

http://plaza.ufl.edu/volvo240/valvecover.htm

[Mr Project]

Eeek! On that site, sandblasting = bad idea, and man, that new paint looks pretty rough. A little prep work goes a long way. Ok, a lot of prep work goes a long way. But still, after all that work to take it off and clean it up, you'd want to prep the surface a lot better than that.

I just painted a Corvair dash with 'wrinkle' paint that gave it some neat texture to replicate the original finish. I wonder if there is something similar that will hold up under engine temps?

[winfred]

short of burning it off that's about the only way to get that epoxy crud off that bmw puts on there, i sent a pair of m60 vc's to the machine shop to get their opinion, he said if he tanked them long enough to kill the coating the valve covers would disolve, and my favorite paint stripper won't touch it. it's amazing how it wears off so easy but is such a bitch to remove

Eeek! On that site, sandblasting = bad idea

[535ise]

I painted my M30 rocker cover with some VHT wrinkle paint.

It has a nice textured finish though if i were to do it again i'd use only 2-3 coats rather than the 4-5 coats i did on mine to give a better finish.

I used brake cleaner and some paint stripper to remove all traces of that yellow cosmoline stuf.

I used no primer.The VHT paint is easy to aply with no runs even though i was putting it on thickley.

The only down side to this paint is it takes at least 48 hours to cure,but this might be speeded up with some heat.

Please excuse my engine bay as it is a mess and the intake/air filter is going to be changed soon !





HTH

Andy

[wengenstein]

Wow...I was thinking about doing something this myself but figured it was too ambitious of a project. It doesn't sound so bad afterall

All you did was strip it, clean it, and paint it? What kind of stripper and paint would you recommend? And what did you do about the BMW logo, sand/grind off the paint?

And has anyone ever seen anything fancy done with the big plastic M60 engine cover?

I painted my M30 rocker cover with some VHT wrinkle paint.

It has a nice textured finish though if i were to do it again i'd use only 2-3 coats rather than the 4-5 coats i did on mine to give a better finish.

I used brake cleaner and some paint stripper to remove all traces of that yellow cosmoline stuf.

I used no primer.The VHT paint is easy to aply with no runs even though i was putting it on thickley.

The only down side to this paint is it takes at least 48 hours to cure,but this might be speeded up with some heat.

Please excuse my engine bay as it is a mess and the intake/air filter is going to be changed soon !





HTH

Andy