Any suggestion on what to do with my crappy looking 280zx valve cover.

Thought about polishing it. But seems like a lot of time.

Maybe bead blast it and paint it.
Afraid of getting grit inside the breather baffle.

Any help would be appreciated.

Pat

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Pat & Regina
Current Inventory
73 240Z Gray (in fostercare)
74 260Z White project car (back on the road)
74 260Z Brown triple webers
75 280 Z stroker
82 280ZX
91 300ZXTT
12 370Z Black

Pat,
Frank, Dave Sirico and I had our valve covers polished by the same shop at the beginning of the season and they came out great. This picture doesn't do it justice. See the following thread:

http://forums.ctzcc.com/viewtopic.php?t=3655

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Ross Williams
1978 280Z Black Pearl Edition 38k Original Miles

I like the polished look. My 260z has a nice shiney cover on it.

I would like to shine it up then paint the raise portions and letters, and maybe black out some areas for contrast.

Opp's just rememberd I left the valve covers in the back of the wife Xterra after the trip to the machine shop. Better go get them before the roll all over the place.

Pat

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Pat & Regina
Current Inventory
73 240Z Gray (in fostercare)
74 260Z White project car (back on the road)
74 260Z Brown triple webers
75 280 Z stroker
82 280ZX
91 300ZXTT
12 370Z Black

Scotty had his cam cover powder-coated WHITE, to match his rare interior, and it looks great!

Bryan Little polished his, then detailed the inlet ~ the results are staggering!

Dave Russell did his in red! But everyone gets distracted by his tripple SUs.

Allan Robbins had his powder-coated flat black, with a serious-business look.

I had mine polished, then did the SU bells, too. Vinny Bedini took one look at the result and insisted the engine be detailed to match them. For a daily driver which was never meant to be a show car, my 02807 came out looking pretty presentable!

My stupid laptop is being obstinately demonic just now, refusing to let me post pictures of Scotty's or Bryan's great cam covers. Maybe it will relent by tomorrow. I'm quitting for now, before I take a hammer to it!

I like the polished look personally..

John Taddonio has his cover hi-gloss black

I spent a whole weekend polishing mine. You start with 440 grit sandpaper, scotchbrite pad and work progressively smaller to about 1500 grit.

Then you use "Tripoli" rouge and a polishing wheel to bring everything to a mirror finish. I only did mine about 80% of what was possible, getting that perfect mirror finish takes a lot of patience. It's also messy and leaves a lot of gray aluminum dust on the floor. You can sweep it up but I suggest only doing it in a garage.

A fun project, but with all the bits and time spent I think I would pay someone else to do it for me next time.

The top photo was before starting, with just a "scotchbriting". The bottom shot is one year after I did the polishing. I went over it again by hand before the photo, but you can see how it's oxidized on the bottom edges.

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Bryan Little
Datsunzgarage.com

1970 240Z - enhanced F54 L28 w/P90, Weber DCOEs, 4:11 R200, Nissan T5 5-speed

I had the valve cover powdercoated Hi-gloss black, then carefully sanded the lettering to reveal the natural aluminum. I think it turned out great.

Powdercoating is durable and easy to maintain. You can pick just about any color, including chrome silver which looks very close to real chrome.

I also had the bumpers, grill and tailight trim powdercoated a "sand finish" black which complemented the car extremely well. The "sand finish" is very close to the original texture of the tail panels.

Durable, low maintenance, relatively inexpensive, it's the way to go.

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John Taddonio
1970 240Z
1977 530Z
1984 300ZXT
zcarnut@hotmail.com
FB: Zccr zcarclubofrochester

Scotty ~ ya gotta put yours in here for us ~ my computer won't let me transfer my great shots of your engine into the Forum

How did I get my valve cover pic in here? Actualy its more so a pic of my SU Tripple Setup. You dont see that everyday. Thank you Frank for showing it off.

I sanded, primed, and painted mine. It is PPG MC161 clear over Duplicolor hi-temp silver over PPG Epoxy. No issues except in the threads for the oil filler cap - I had some flaking there.



Mike

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280zx NA to T... http://z.modeltrainguide.com

Wasn't it you who turned us on to the trick of baking engine parts in the BBQ grill after painting them with hi-temp paint?

(Whoever it was, he probably saved a lot of marriages. Most of us were using the kitchen oven and getting caught!)

Guilty as charged, Frank!

By the way - I don't think you need to use hi-temp paint here. That's just what I had on the shelf. I didn't bake the valve cover... just some brake calipers and brackets!

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280zx NA to T... http://z.modeltrainguide.com

All of the pictures look and all of the descriptions sound wonderful, but
so far everything seems geared toward cosmetics/appearance. Don't
get me wrong, there is nothing whatever undesirable about a nice looking
if not stunning engine room.

But I seem to remember "back in the day" there was something about
painting the cam cover black for better heat dissipation. Anybdody got
any pix of the race cars? Any tech savvy inputs?

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All Z Best,.......Kathy & Rick

1969 Z.CAR (#00013 10/69) 8/30/76
1969 ITSA.Z (#00171 11/69) 8/24/73
1970 OLD.Z (#06289 6/70) original owner
1971 510 2dr since 12/31/75
1969 1600 rdstr (our 160-Z)
1971 (#19851 1/71) sold
1975 75.Z (#01343 1/75)

As Requested here are a few small shots of my Valve cover on my 240-Z
You Can also look up these Valve covers on ebay motors parts and you can get them in any color or even polished through a co. in California.