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Which valve cover.

8K views 48 replies 21 participants last post by  gearheadslife 
#1 ·
My wife thought the valve covers on my lt1 look a bit plain and unfinished so I fabricated a trim plate to mount on top and machined some stainless washers to go under the chrome acorn nuts. I'm not sure I'm crazy about it.
What you guys think?


 
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#4 ·
I agree with color match but first cut the trim plate you made in half and round the new ends so it makes two then change the brass color to brushed aluminum then the cap red. Imo im not a fan of weird shiny so I would remove the diamond shiny everywhere and color match that as well...even though I know thats not the question.
 
#12 ·
I agree,, Make a cover for the top of the Map.. Even if it just a shiny plate sitting on top..;)

You can't go over board with that engine bay,, It fit's the car...Never to shiny under the hood..:mwink::thumbup:

It's in the Detail,Detail, Detail,, That make's a car stand out,, And you hit the nail right on the head...:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
#14 ·
I say narrow it down a little, paint them red and in the middle just over the width of the spacers, do some engine turning on that...just an engine turned accent down the middle of the red trim piece; and cover up that MAP. sheesh LOL

Edit: maybe even just a wide red stripe a little wider than the spacers? Something to break up the flat 'grey on grey' space on top of the valvecover, you're losing a lot of dimension there and its compounded by the fact you've got tons of stuff going on there. Dont go overboards, just something to break it up. Know of a local Pinstriper?

Love the car. How did you do the engine turning? Craytex on a wooden dowel in a drill press?

Maybe you could do a "How To" on the layout and materials for us younger guys to do engine turning?
 
#15 ·
You guys shamed me into it, I removed the map sensor today and will mill a cover for it.
Auto Gear, The machine turning on the plate on the manifold was done with a kit from Eastwood. They come in 1/2" or 1" diameter and appear to be some sort of rubber impregnated with various compounds. I did mine with the 1/2" diameter roll and the most difficult part is maintaining the spacing for the overlap. I did mine in a milling machine so indexing was easy and accurate but still easy to screw up, ask me how I know:D I was getting the hang of it by the time I made the plate on the manifold because I made all the plates for my custom dash.

I wanted to carry the machine turning into the engine compartment so I continued the 1/2" circles and 3" circles on the stainless steel firewall.
The firewall I did with 3" scotchbrite pads. I laid out the circles a row at a time with a magic marker and used the mill like a drill press and just laid the scotcbrite pad in the circles. It took a bunch of pads though, stainless is tough.
Also, when doing the 1/2" circles on aluminum you have to get the speed right, to fast and it will burn the aluminum, to slow and it doesn't cut well. I forget what speed I ran it at but it was around 600 rpm.
I used a mix of water and wd40 for coolant and dabbed it on with a brush. I could only get around three or four circles before the rubber roll would need to be dressed because it seems to load up.
I would dress it with 220 grit adhesive backed sand paper stuck to a piece of flat stock that I could just lay on the mill table and bring the spindle down to touch the paper that way it would dress the rubber roll flat so you get a clean circle.
It is very time consuming, so patience is a virtue:cool::cool:
 
#16 ·
You guys shamed me into it, I removed the map sensor today and will mill a cover for it.
Auto Gear, The machine turning on the plate on the manifold was done with a kit from Eastwood. They come in 1/2" or 1" diameter and appear to be some sort of rubber impregnated with various compounds. I did mine with the 1/2" diameter roll and the most difficult part is maintaining the spacing for the overlap. I did mine in a milling machine so indexing was easy and accurate but still easy to screw up, ask me how I know:D I was getting the hang of it by the time I made the plate on the manifold because I made all the plates for my custom dash.

I wanted to carry the machine turning into the engine compartment so I continued the 1/2" circles and 3" circles on the stainless steel firewall.
The firewall I did with 3" scotchbrite pads. I laid out the circles a row at a time with a magic marker and used the mill like a drill press and just laid the scotcbrite pad in the circles. It took a bunch of pads though, stainless is tough.
Also, when doing the 1/2" circles on aluminum you have to get the speed right, to fast and it will burn the aluminum, to slow and it doesn't cut well. I forget what speed I ran it at but it was around 600 rpm.
I used a mix of water and wd40 for coolant and dabbed it on with a brush. I could only get around three or four circles before the rubber roll would need to be dressed because it seems to load up.
I would dress it with 220 grit adhesive backed sand paper stuck to a piece of flat stock that I could just lay on the mill table and bring the spindle down to touch the paper that way it would dress the rubber roll flat so you get a clean circle.
It is very time consuming, so patience is a virtue:cool::cool:
like it, but not for me, I'm not good with virtues :smash:
 
#17 ·
im a shoprat. i LOVE the jewling. bring a little gunlove to the hotrodding world. definatly my style! i have a jewling kit for my mill but its for doing smaller peices like bolts and magazine followers but i could use that ideah. thank you for the insight!! wish i had the means to do the whole firewall!!! that is phenominal! here i am thinkin diamond plate. that is way better ideah with the jewling.
 
#23 ·
My wife thought the valve covers on my lt1 look a bit plain and unfinished so I fabricated a trim plate to mount on top and machined some stainless washers to go under the chrome acorn nuts. I'm not sure I'm crazy about it.
What you guys think?
I think you should finish the whole thing off in flat black rattle can and tell the wife to go fix you some eggs.
 
#25 · (Edited)
ruger mark series, love em or hate em. i love em. where im at cobalt, your a crook. better take two rounds outa that mag before posting pics.:nono: that mark111 is deadly with more than 7 rds.:smash: on topic though, i bet you can integrate lots of ideahs back and forth. i used an old ratchet handle and some aluminum strips to make stabilizer struts for my mini-14's and cut out action shock buffers from an old hay conveyor belt. used an otis rifle cleaning cable for a choke cable on my old s-10. made a little bracket for it with some spring tension...worked mint.
 
#34 ·
I mean come on guy's the man is running a TWIN TURBO Pro Street Rambler American now for real how many have you seen or atleast like this one ? come on his is awesome i don't care what he does. JMO And everyone on the site and any site knows this if you don't want or can handle opinions from others then don't ask cause your going to get all kinds around a place like this, to many great minds around here not to IMHO anyway, some great builders on this site some of the best in my book.:thumbup:


Cole
:pimp:
 
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