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 !

http://img44.exs.cx/img44/5482/picture001a0nb.jpg

http://img135.exs.cx/img135/7877/picture003a3yf.jpg

HTH

Andy

[George M]

The black wrinkle cover looks pretty cool...shades of Ferrrari :-)
Here is my valve cover since you asked for a pic in silver:
M-30 Valve Cover in Aluminum color: (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=3599&highlight=duplicolor)

HTH,
George

[535ise]

The black wrinkle cover looks pretty cool...shades of Ferrrari :-)
Here is my valve cover since you asked for a pic in silver:
M-30 Valve Cover in Aluminum color: (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=3599&highlight=duplicolor)

HTH,
George

Thats one super clean engine bay George !

I could do with painting my themostat housing and a lot more besides to get my bay half as good as yours.

I need to get some nice alloy looking paint for those E28 M5 TB's i'm going to fit and replace a lot of nuts and bolts to freshen it up.

Andy

[Interceptor]

Here is my valve cover since you asked for a pic in silver:
M-30 Valve Cover in Aluminum color: (http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=3599&highlight=duplicolor)

Whoa, dude! That looks cleaner and neater than most of the new cars! :)

Regards

[Mr Project]

I really like that wrinkle paint!

And George, the paint looks great, but it's the whole package that makes it amazing. Even the plastic looks new!

[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 !

http://img44.exs.cx/img44/5482/picture001a0nb.jpg

http://img135.exs.cx/img135/7877/picture003a3yf.jpg

HTH

Andy

[George M]

Thanks Guys,
Only reason I rolled the pics out a second time is Rob wanted to see what a silver cover looks like. Yeah the engine looks much better than new without the ugly Cosmoline and freshly painted components. Mr. P reason the plastic looks new is I repainted all the plastic too :-)...including air box...with a factory correct low gloss heat temp black. Cosmoline can not be effectively removed from plastic pieces without changing the surface integrity...hence the repaint. My car only gets driven once in a while on nice days so the engine stays as clean as shown. Reason it is so clean is I detailed every part when I rebuilt the top end the winter before last....took my time and enjoyed the process. Initially I painted the valve cover a bright red but upon reflection wanted a monochrome theme since the car exterior is Sterling Silber...so stripped and repainted the cover with the Aluminum color you see and while in there installed Don Gale's great banjo bolt safety wire kit....thanks again Don my evil twin.
Now the color theme throughout the car is silver and black...set off with the burlwood
trimmed interior.
George

[wengenstein]

I agree, it looks great.. I think I'm going to call my local BMW salvage yard and see if I can get ahold of a set of valve covers to experiment on :)




Thanks Guys,
Only reason I rolled the pics out a second time is Rob wanted to see what a silver cover looks like. Yeah the engine looks much better than new without the ugly Cosmoline and freshly painted components. Mr. P reason the plastic looks new is I repainted all the plastic too :-)...including air box...with a factory correct low gloss heat temp black. Cosmoline can not be effectively removed from plastic pieces without changing the surface integrity...hence the repaint. My car only gets driven once in a while on nice days so the engine stays as clean as shown. Reason it is so clean is I detailed every part when I rebuilt the top end the winter before last....took my time and enjoyed the process. Initially I painted the valve cover a bright red but upon reflection wanted a monochrome theme since the car exterior is Sterling Silber...so stripped and repainted the cover with the Aluminum color you see and while in there installed Don Gale's great banjo bolt safety wire kit....thanks again Don my evil twin.
Now the color theme throughout the car is silver and black...set off with the burlwood
trimmed interior.
George