Hey Cheo, how ya like your old Valve Covers now?

[Pakrat 1,043]

I think I still want to go over the aluminum once more with a finer grit and then put some nice polish on them but this is how they look after the first go around of repainting them Ford Blue instead of black and then stripping the top surface and a light polishing. As you know originally the aluminum fins and letters had a very rough machined finish to them with no polish at all so I think they'll look pretty good next to the new air cleaner lid now.

[Thesubhumans 10]

Wow! that turned out great!

 

How did you mask it? Did you just cover the top in tape and cut out the high spots with a razor blade?

 

What grit paper is it finished in in that picture? Once you sand the aluminum with #1500 grit paper and put some metal polish on you'll be blinded.

 

Trevor.

[buening 63]

Now have fun wiping the polish out of the fins when you decide to use polish. Been there, done that. I have ball-milled covers and the polish gets in the grooves and discolors the paint. Looks damn good though!!!!

[Pakrat 1,043]

Wow! that turned out great!

 

How did you mask it? Did you just cover the top in tape and cut out the high spots with a razor blade?

 

What grit paper is it finished in in that picture? Once you sand the aluminum with #1500 grit paper and put some metal polish on you'll be blinded.

 

Trevor.

 

No I didn't mask anthing that would take for ever and paint would have still creeped onto some of the surface. I went that route on my air cleaner lid because most of that was already polished and I didn't want to damage the surface, no matter how well I thought I covered it I had a lot of clean up still, but that only has seven fins so it wasn't too bad.

 

For the valve covers though, after giving it a thourough degreasing and cleaning I just painted every square inch of it Blue. I then used my air die grinder with two different 2" discs I had that came in a 3M kit I bought a while back. One was a course scoth brite pad for paint stripping and the other was a fine for polishing. You have to take your time to only strip the areas you wan't stripped but it was the best way to go since this aluminum surface was not previously polished. I may just give it a once over by hand with 0000 steel wool and then cover it all in clear paint as I am concerned about the issue with polish as Buening mentioned and I don't want to have to continue to polish such a narrow area down the road.

[buening 63]

You might invest in the Zoops aluminum sealant. Clear coats will turn yellow/cloudy within a year of normal use. Problem with Zoops is the price. Damn thats pricey for such little aluminum that you need to cover.

[Pakrat 1,043]

You might invest in the Zoops aluminum sealant. Clear coats will turn yellow/cloudy within a year of normal use. Problem with Zoops is the price. Damn thats pricey for such little aluminum that you need to cover.

 

Not really, 95% of my new air cleaner lid is polished and it's not the best polishing job either, it's going to need alot of hand rubbing to get it mirrored and with a ram air hood scoop it will get dirty easy. I'll have several other polished aluminum parts as well that I'd like to keep easy to maintain so I will look into as it's probably worth the investment, thanks for the tip!

[buening 63]

It's around $100 for the kit IIRC. Covers alot of aluminum though, so you have enough for a couple coats. Supposedly lasts 2-3 years

[bnickel 10,004]

It's around $100 for the kit IIRC. Covers alot of aluminum though, so you have enough for a couple coats. Supposedly lasts 2-3 years

 

 

it would also work well on the those nice polished billet aluminum magnum 500s he's getting too. for that alone the zoops would be worth the price of admission.

 

on the yellowing clear coat thing though, i have found that the plasti-cote engine paint with the ceramic doesn't yellow. i painted my finned "powered by ford" valve covers with it over the wrinkle black and brushed finish on the fins almost 5 years ago and it hasn't yellowed yet. granted the car hasn't really been driven but it does a bunch of running hours on the engine.

[Cheo69GT 1]

I think I still want to go over the aluminum once more with a finer grit and then put some nice polish on them but this is how they look after the first go around of repainting them Ford Blue instead of black and then stripping the top surface and a light polishing. As you know originally the aluminum fins and letters had a very rough machined finish to them with no polish at all so I think they'll look pretty good next to the new air cleaner lid now.

 

NICE!!!! Ok, I want them back! LOL. Nice job man, you should do that for a few bucks on the side.

[Protowrxs 111]

Looks great Pak.. that is how I like the Cobra covers.

 

When do we get to see the whole engine combo??..:drool:

 

-Stephen

[69grandecj 0]

Nice work!

[Pakrat 1,043]

When do we get to see the whole engine combo??..:drool:

 

-Stephen

 

I was really hoping to have it all done by last weekend but I ran into some snags and the weather has been rainy and cold again. I finally got a break today when it hit 60 and the sun came out this afternoon so I finally painted my heads and installed the new freeze plugs. Sadly it will continue to rain the next few days but if it clears up by the weekend then I should be able to paint the remainder of the block on Saturday and put it all back together on Sunday.

 

For now here is a quick mock up of the top section to give you an idea. Keep in mind that is just an old 14" crap element I had hanging around and the lid still needs lots of polishing and a little paint clean up. Once I get it back in the car and I can measure my clearance to the hole in the hood I will then buy an appropriate height K&N element for it and be adding a gasket to the rim so it seals up nice and tight like a 68 1/2 428 CJ. I also have a little bit more cleaning to do on that intake so i can clear it finally. I have been holding off though unitl I can mock the whole engine in case I decide if it needs to be blue instead.

[bnickel 10,004]

hey Rich, i've got an idea for you. get some of that blue masking tape and cover up the polished parts of the air cleaner to see how you'd like it painted blue. i still think it looks a bit odd personally. i don't mean that it doesn't look good, i just think it's kind of lost in the rest of theme is all. to really pull that off i think you need to do the same with the valve covers. just a suggestion

 

otherwise, i really like everything a lot :thumbup:

 

edit: i almost wish i'd never given you the idea because when i do the cougar like that people are going to think i copied you

[Pakrat 1,043]

hey Rich, i've got an idea for you. get some of that blue masking tape and cover up the polished parts of the air cleaner to see how you'd like it painted blue. i still think it looks a bit odd personally. i don't mean that it doesn't look good, i just think it's kind of lost in the rest of theme is all. to really pull that off i think you need to do the same with the valve covers. just a suggestion

 

otherwise, i really like everything a lot :thumbup:

 

edit: i almost wish i'd never given you the idea because when i do the cougar like that people are going to think i copied you

 

I have plenty of that blue tape, you can see some on the front of the intake where the thermostat goes. I haven't polished it more yet just so I can wait until it is all together and then decide if I paint the sides too or not. I need to see how it and the intake look as a whole unit before I make up my mind for sure. Remember there will be more aluminum in the whole bay like the overflow tank and the wire looms etc.... I do agree that now it looks a tad out of balance though. Even though I like the clean look with no wing nut I wonder sometimes if the rodworx one wouldn't have looked better?!??!?!

 

So which idea specifically? There have been so many.

[bnickel 10,004]

So which idea specifically? There have been so many.

 

yeah really. oh well, at least i know what my car would look like if it was a vert

[Protowrxs 111]

You need one of those COBRA name tags right in the middle of the fins crossways (recessed) in the aircleaner painted blue background as well. Make sense? Of course that would make it look like you covered a hole up for the nut though and it would require milling the fins out.

 

I like it myself. I liked the blue cover look from back in the 70's on mine.

 

Making me think twice about my plans of getting away from Ford Blue this time around..

 

-Stephen

[Pakrat 1,043]

You need one of those COBRA name tags right in the middle of the fins crossways (recessed) in the aircleaner painted blue background as well. Make sense? Of course that would make it look like you covered a hole up for the nut though and it would require milling the fins out.

 

I like it myself. I liked the blue cover look from back in the 70's on mine.

 

Making me think twice about my plans of getting away from Ford Blue this time around..

 

-Stephen

 

Well, I have thought about eventually doing something like that regardless of wether I paint the sides blue or leave them polished. I wouldn't put it in the middle though, I would put it more towards the front like the Cobra oval ones or I may decide to use an appropriate lid sticker there instead. Either way miling out the fins is a big commitment with no going back once you start so this is a detailing choice I will make later down the road when I run out of "have to do" things.

 

Hey B, I remember you pointing out to me a long time ago that my air cleaner base wasn't stock because the air line to the valve cover comes out the side instead of the front but do you know what car it comes from them?

 

This was one of the reasons I never thought twice about hacking off the snorkel but I have to say I always thought the hose looked cleaner on the side then on the front anyway. I'm still not 100% sure what the final snorkel delete section will look like. I just fabbed up that wire screen quickly to clean it up but I may make a custom air filter for it or just make a block off plate for it, not sure the best way to finish it off yet looks wise or if it is just actually better for all the air to come through the hood and no warmer air from the engine at all or just the forced air to be able to escape anywhere else for that matter. Thoughts?

[bnickel 10,004]

the base you have is from a 70-up car. mustang, gaxlaxie, whatever. the 69's and earlier had the breather hose in the front.i personally like the 69 and later style. i like the screen you have in there now, while slightly different, it reminds me of the 67 390 GT air cleaner. i say leave it as is or make it more correct looking for the 67 390 gt version. a little warm air won't hurt anything and at speed you probably won't get any of the warm air in anyway.

 

somthing i've been thinking that might look good on your air cleaner, if you decide to some fin milling later on, would be to use one of the hood scoop engine call out badges or that power by ford one i showed you a while back. also, there's nothing saying you have to keep the fins facing forward, you could adjust the lid so the fins run side to side and install a regular style air cleaner decal on what would then be the front, though it might look a little odd.

[Pakrat 1,043]

the base you have is from a 70-up car. mustang, gaxlaxie, whatever. the 69's and earlier had the breather hose in the front.i personally like the 69 and later style. i like the screen you have in there now, while slightly different, it reminds me of the 67 390 GT air cleaner. i say leave it as is or make it more correct looking for the 67 390 gt version. a little warm air won't hurt anything and at speed you probably won't get any of the warm air in anyway.

 

somthing i've been thinking that might look good on your air cleaner, if you decide to some fin milling later on, would be to use one of the hood scoop engine call out badges or that power by ford one i showed you a while back. also, there's nothing saying you have to keep the fins facing forward, you could adjust the lid so the fins run side to side and install a regular style air cleaner decal on what would then be the front, though it might look a little odd.

 

Hmm, that's weird I thought I remembered you saying it was from a 70 but when I checked a bunch of 70' Mustang engine pics they seemed to have the same breather hose in the front. That's the only real difference isn't it? I'll have to do some more looking. For some reason I just think there is so much going on in the front that it becomes too cluttered but it's all what you are used to staring at I guess. I'll have to look for picks of the 67' 390 GT as well I guess, not sure what that looks like. The screen I used was just some left over from the covers on my gutters, same pattern type as on alot of air filters and the shelby side scoop screens too though oddly enough.

 

I actually have some 302 air scoop call out badges from CJ Pony, they look just like the 351 and 390 real ones. What Proto was referencing was basicaly the same size and shape only Cobra like this.

 

I actually have some of these too that I plan to use under the Mustang Fender badges and these are metal unlike the 302 scoop ones that are plastic. I did also think about putting the fins sideways to make it easy but I think it might be goofy looking too. I'd like to mill it and go one more step to being unique but that stuff makes me nervous. It was alot easier when we did it to my father in laws valve covers on the t-bird simply because it wasn't mine, lol.

[bnickel 10,004]

my 70 cougar had the same type air cleaner you do. it was a 351c though, so maybe that's part of the difference. i was aware of what Proto was speaking of, he has one of those on his old intake as well.

[bnickel 10,004]

here is a pic of the 67 390 GT air cleaner

[Pakrat 1,043]

here is a pic of the 67 390 GT air cleaner

 

 

I think you need ot find a bigger pic so I can actually see it.:001_unsure:

[bnickel 10,004]

ok let's try that again

[Pakrat 1,043]

my 70 cougar had the same type air cleaner you do. it was a 351c though, so maybe that's part of the difference. i was aware of what Proto was speaking of, he has one of those on his old intake as well.

 

Got ya. I was thinking if I did engine displacment instead that it might look cool to mill in a spot for one of the fender emblems instead. Not as easy as a rectangle but might be nice looking.

 

[Pakrat 1,043]

ok let's try that again

 

Oh wow, that is simillar looking, hunh. I'd have to remove the outer plate, trim the base extension flush then weld up and grind the bolt holes. I wonder how it attaches from the inside though? I guess maybe another plate just holds it from the inside and the bolt holes don't go all the way through. I'll probably just keep it the way I have it but I will have to take a closer look at it out of curiousty to see what it would entail.