[s-cars] valve cover

[Frank Amoroso]

Ah valve covers.

Your options are varied. They can be split between procedures that
require the unit to come off and those that don't, and then
implementation / turnaround times vary dramatically between the
different options and implementations.

First off, the aluminum under hood pieces look pretty beat up on UrSs
these days (valve covers, intake manifold, etc). Some of them are beyond
simple polishing with the units still in the car (although it may work
at first, they tend to dull pretty quickly again).

Second off, there is a school of thought that feels that coating
underhood components in any dark colors  is detrimental to underhood
temps. One Benz tuner (I forget the name) stated in European Car that
they measured a 30 degree temperature difference in one case (I don't
remember the Ds, so disclaimers apply).

You can simply attempt to buff / polish the unit in place with a variety
of polishing compunds / pastes / tools. etc. (in fact, this is what I
did with my intake manifold, I used varying grit sanding sponges, etc.,
then moved on to polishing compounds, etc.).

You can paint the unit in place with a handful of different finishes.

You can pull the unit off and polish it / have it polished or paint it.
You can also remove the unit and have it coated / plated with many
different coatings (chrome (?!), powdercoating, specialty coatings
(Jet-Hot, Swain-tech, and others)).

I have done it two different ways. Red powdercoating, this was fun and
looked good. The finish was very durable, and was very easy to clean
(all it took was wiping down with a moist rag and the unit looked as
good as it did when it came out of the oven). The downside? This
particular powdercoater took 30 days to turn it around (they had the
parts for 29 days and then finally did the work on the 30th day!).

My current unit is Silver (sterling) Jet-Hot coated. I really like this
setup. It appears as a quasi-polished finish, is easy to clean, was
reasonably priced, and their turn around time was less than a week.

There is less upkeep with a coated / plated finish as opposed to
polished which will require ongoing maintenance.

Frank at s-cars.org