DIY: exposed cam gears and painted cam cover (56k beware)
Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 6:41 pm
Dunno...sort of got bored with my engine bay and thought exposed cam gears would look way cool.
When I bought my Tighe cams, they came with adjustable cam gears but I didn't install them
as I would have to pull the rocker cover off to access the adjustments. So, how about FFG
kills two birds with one stone, so to speak. (ps. I know the rocker cover has to come off to make adjustments anyway)
This is what my engine bay looked like before:
I went and bought an Astina rocker cover from my local friendly wreckers (cam phone-sorry)
Took it to work and sandblasted it (as well as the adjustable cam gears) again with the cam phone
comparison of inside of rocker cover pre and post blasting
The freshly sandblasted rocker cover (at this stage I thought about polishing it-then I remembered what a PIA it was to do )
The spraying of the VHT wrinkle paint was done late at night (big no no) so I heated up the rocker
cover with my heat gun and also used the gun to accelerate the solvent evaporation of the paint.
You can see in the images the wet paint areas and the wrinkled areas. It doesn't take long with a heat gun.
Be aware that even though the paint has \"dried\" and has the desired effect, it is still quite soft and easily scratched.
Now it came time to paint the adjustable cam gears. I also polished up the aluminium centers.
When I bought my Tighe cams, they came with adjustable cam gears but I didn't install them
as I would have to pull the rocker cover off to access the adjustments. So, how about FFG
kills two birds with one stone, so to speak. (ps. I know the rocker cover has to come off to make adjustments anyway)
This is what my engine bay looked like before:
I went and bought an Astina rocker cover from my local friendly wreckers (cam phone-sorry)
Took it to work and sandblasted it (as well as the adjustable cam gears) again with the cam phone
comparison of inside of rocker cover pre and post blasting
The freshly sandblasted rocker cover (at this stage I thought about polishing it-then I remembered what a PIA it was to do )
The spraying of the VHT wrinkle paint was done late at night (big no no) so I heated up the rocker
cover with my heat gun and also used the gun to accelerate the solvent evaporation of the paint.
You can see in the images the wet paint areas and the wrinkled areas. It doesn't take long with a heat gun.
Be aware that even though the paint has \"dried\" and has the desired effect, it is still quite soft and easily scratched.
Now it came time to paint the adjustable cam gears. I also polished up the aluminium centers.