polished aluminum is stained

[DeeVeeEight]

My polished aluminum valve covers look like shit, they are stained and are a pita to maintain. I am thinking of powder coating them but that may be too drastic a solution at this point. Are there any tricks to maintaining shiny aluminum parts?

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[Twin_Turbo]

The 1st thing to do is to remove that flowmaster sticker

Maintaining that aluminum is going to be a pita, I would have it clear powdercoated and be done with it. Otherwise you'll be polishing it and what not all the time.

 

[phantomjock]

Haven't tried it - yet on metal parts -- But POR-15 folks have some (clear) metal coatings. Brush on - self leveling, sorta bullet proof and cheaper than powdercoating.


BUT --- I powdercoated some Bronze boat parts in 2000. Nearly 10 years on in the marine environment -- LIKE NEW.

It was a multistep process - a major cleaning, remove all the cleaning residue, then they shot some highlight colors - translucent -- and followed with clear. In a word -- BRILLIANT!

Cheers - Jim

 

[DeeVeeEight]

It won't happen right away ( I need a dedicated oven) but I will powder coat these red & black....

 

[Fuelie74]

That's the cheap part about powder coating. I got my oven at Menard's for $8.00. It was one the hauled out of someones home when they bought a new one. You just have to ask.

 

[saudivette]

Be so very very careful with powder coating, especially if you buy your own equipment to do it - it's very addictive and before you know it, you'll be down to a bare block in your engine bay after you've ripped out everything you can powder coat! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Seriously though, it's not much of an outlay to get started and you can do some fantastic work. You could even recoup some of your costs by doing some pc for other people :thumbs:

 

[DeeVeeEight]

What's the trick to multiple colors when powder coating? Do you apply one color, bake it, then apply the second color and re-bake?

 

[saudivette]

What's the trick to multiple colors when powder coating? Do you apply one color, bake it, then apply the second color and re-bake?

Yes, that's it mate.

On something like my calipers, I did a patch of white first (a patch big enough to encompass the word and the skull) then cured them and once they'd cooled down, I masked over the white where I wanted it to stay. I used vinyl lettering from a sign writing shop to make the word and made my own skull stencil out of heat proof tape. Finished masking up then shot the red and put them in the oven again - when the red started to flow out, I pulled them out of the oven and removed the masking then put them back in the oven again for full cure :thumbs: