painted cam cover

[hks_kansei]

VHT Crinkle Black.
KILLER!

+1 (Wrinkle Black)

This is the cheapest and fastest way too. Unlike most paint, this stuff works best sprayed on thick but you must bake it to get the desired wrinkle effect so do it in the oven when the missus is out.

It will wrinkle at normal temperatures as well, just not as much.
I prefer the smaller, tighter, wrinkles that room temp (with a hairdryer on low heat) gave me.

Also the bonus of not filling the oven with paint fumes

[Okibi]

..Dave is that cam cover yours? ..

It was one I did for a club member many years ago, it came out better than mine that was professionally done.

Plenty of weeds in my lawn these days

[MrRevhead]

What did you use to polish it? Autosol & scotch pad?

How long did it take

Looks great!

[Mr Morlock]

there are guides on the polishing method and process. It looks very good and at one stage a sponsor offered a changeover. However as Okibi is pointing out it takes time to do it and many of us only lift the bonnet to check the oil or to add water in the windscreen washer. Personally I would polish it rather than paint it but have done neither- too many other things like the weeds that I also have that divert my attention. PS when I was young bloke guys used to polish by hand their timing covers on motorcycles with Goddards glow - but the castings were pretty good, not very big and easy to access and also always on show.

[hks_kansei]

I would assume the rough casting on the MX5 valve cover would make it a big job to polish like that.

I'm visualising many, many hours with hundreds of sheets of sandpaper, then many, many more hours with polishes and buffing wheels.

[Okibi]

Yup that's about it.