RE: Urq Valve Cover Painting

[Todd Phenneger <phen9461@uidaho.edu>]

Greetings all,

>I plan on replacing the valve cover gasket on the urq sometime over the
>next couple weeks.  The valve cover itself is looking a little worse for
>wear.  A good portion of the paint has chipped off, so I figured that
>while I have the cover off, I would re-paint it.  Any advice out there?
>I figure I should at least sand off the old paint before the repaint, but
>I have no idea what type of paint to use.  Any suggestions?  Does the
>cover need to be primed before painting?  Thanks!!

	I have a few.  FIrst, I would Powder Coat it.  Powder Coating is
impervious to most chemicals, heat, and lasts a long time.  Looks great
too.  Plus, if you take it there, they will sand or media blast it before
painting anyways so you can take it to them dirty :)   Most places where I
live are like this at least.  Also, it is not very expensive.  Maybe $20
to have it done.
	Second, IF you paint it, I did mine.  I used a drill with a wire
brush to clean it down to the aluminum.  Stayed this way for a while but
it is hard to keep clean like this.  I thought about just clear coating it
but decided to go with a high temp primer, followed by a high temp paint
and clear coat bought at Shucks.  Only problems I have is with reactions
with Engine Degreaser.  Seems to want to peel the Clearcoat right off.
Oops.
	For the record, I painted it Aluminum Color, then painted the VW
and Audi symbols in red (the color of my car) before clearcoating it.
Looks Great.

	Hope that helps.

	Todd Phenneger
	1984 4000s quattro / modified/ awaiting Turbo Transplant.
	1985 4000 quattro / Silver / Fixing it Up.
	1987 4000cs quattro / Saphire Metallic Blue/ Girlfriend's
	1996 A6q / Volcano / Dads Car
   *****1985 5kt / PARTING OUT!