Polished Valve Covers for your Snake

[Joe Dozzo]

and you already have them on the car...

Here are a couple of pictures of my polished valve covers. They were actually pretty simple to do, use a media blaster to remove paint from the stock valve covers and get out the polishing compound.

Here are my results. Actually I'm far happier with the valve covers than the pictures - tough to capture just how they look in person.

http://vca2.viperclub.org/gallery/data/500/233Polished_Valve_Covers-med.JPG

http://vca2.viperclub.org/gallery/data/500/233Polished_-_Red_background_1-med.JPG

These will be going on my Silver/Blue GTS along with a polished Roe S/C. Soon, very soon!

 

[Vip-RT10]

Aren't they made of a magnesium compound? Is so I think they will tarnish really fast.

 

[Toby]

Those look great!

I sounds like they wont last though. Too bad.

 

[shifter]

I second what Vip-RT10 mentioned. I know that just polishing the logo on my stock covers lasts only days before they get tarnished.

Joe, Did you have them clearcoated?

 

[Vipermed 97.01]

We had many sets look like that for the first three weeks. Magnesium being a different metal compound then aluminum, oxidizes within a short period of being exposed to oxygen. The difference in magnesium is that is starts from the bottom of the surface of the metal. Within three weeks your covers will be gray. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but magnesium is a metal that can't even be plated. That's why we designed the mirrored valve cover overlays.

 

[onerareviper]

So why wouldn't a clear coat work?

 

[Vipermed 97.01]

thats exactly what we did but as i said it starts from beneith the surface,we exhausted all efforts and consulted many experts on this subject

 

[Joe Dozzo]

Go ahead, rain on my parade! Just kidding all, it's been that kind of week for me!

Next step - for me - is, in fact, clearcoating. I'll now wait a bit to see what "tarnished" looks like. I'm not a metalurgist, but it seems like if one could reduce / eliminate the contact with oxygen, the process could be halted - after all, there are only so many molecules to go around to support the tarnishing process.

Thanks for the comments, I'll keep a close eye on them and watch what happens. Since these are spares, I've not really risked much but my time. And I've certainly learned something. Thanks again!

 

[KenH]

I am surprised that they polished that well. I didn't think you could even get a polish on Magnesium for even a short time. You might check with this outfit. It is unclear whether their process is compatible with maintaining the polished look, but it might be worth checking.

http://www.magnesiumcoating.com/w1/default.asp?page=technical2.htm

--- Ken

 

[Tiepilot]

I spoke with Mr. Warren Lundgren from magnesium coating and inquired about their process, I expect he will post here soon.

 

[Bob D]

Joe

I polished the raised viper lettering and sneaky pete last year. I sprayed WD40 on them and no tarnish yet.
Maybe our lack of humidity helps too.

Bob

 

[kverges]

Clearcoat is unlikely to work. I had some gorgeous magnesium indy car wheels on my vintage indy car polished, then I made the mistake of clear powder coating them. They tarnished from underneath and the powdercoat was basically impossible to remove.

 

[Vip-RT10]

They look great, don't get me wrong. Thanks to Vipermed I know that the valve covers tarnishes. He's a great teacher!

 

[Bandit3]

Very nice. I've owned street rods with polished aluminum parts-- never, and i mean never, will I have anything that's polished.They do look great when new or polished at first, but talk about maintenance time to keep them that good looking. Have you tried clear coating them?? To me, chrome is still the best shiny i can use. Damp cloth, wipe it and you're gone. Maybe I'm lazy? John

 

[Vipermed 97.01]

We polish the factory manifold to a mirror finish top to bottom then coat them with clear,no maintenence just wipe off,one manifold we did locally,owner uses to drive everyday and track events.Over a year later it still looks like new,never had to polish once.Talk about an absolutly amazing look.of course now those valve covers are a different animal entirely.If you attempt to plate the magnesium will NOT hold up through the process. But it is great material to adhere to with our mirrored finished overlays

 

[Mark Young]

Right. If you really want to complete the look, you can either go with the overlays, or go soup-to-nuts and talk to Bill at Apex Motorsports. He's now selling CNC'd aluminum valve covers. You can even get whatever you want milled in the top of them. I've seen them in person, and they are sweeeeeet.

 

[Snake Bitten]

Powdercoat those puppies RED to match your intake!

 

[Joe Dozzo]

To any interested...

Finally heard back from the magnesium coating folks KenH found...

Possible, but not cheap! Interesting comment about some collaboration on the 03 Vipers...
____________________________________________________________

Hi Joseph
Sorry not to have responded before, our sales@ has been in an unattended
corner for 4 weeks since we made some network changes.
We provide coatings for manufactures and infact are working with Daimler
Chrysler on one or two Viper '03 projects.

To do anything to your 2 covers would be mighty expensive ($1000). I am
confident Apticote 250 or a derivative could do what you require and I
am sorry its so expensive.

Thanks for your interest
Regards
Anthony
____________________________________________________________


Finally, almost three weeks later and still as shiny as the photos...