Randy V

The best re-do on an intake and covers I have seen is on Bill Swift's car.

ROG100

We stopped PCing over a year ago. To much trouble, damage, cleaning, mating surfaces screwed up et all. Painting is far better and contary to what some say it holds up well with the right prep. Better colors and you can clear coat. Way way cheaper.
Just my 5 cents worth.
Roger

dr bob

Bill used Duplicolor rattle cans and a bunch of prep. His looks like the original colors on my car when I got it.

The color issue is pretty simple-- it's the same Zermatt silver as used on the outsides of the '70's cars. The challenge is getting the metallic looking fine enough, and making the finish durable enough without clear-coating. The original manifold and cover are smooth finish but it looks like a single-stage paint. Just about every silver metallic option either needs the clear coat for protection, or the metallic part deteriorates to grey when it's cleanedor even just rubbed hard.

I wasn't aware that PC was brake-clean intolerant. In the first uses we used to buy a pretty durable PE powder that was close to bulletproof and resistant to almost anything automotive. At that time there were only a few colors too, no metallics, etc. Now it seems the sky's the limit on colors, but some durability is sacrificed if it won't stand brake-clean.

Repaint and reseal of the intake is on my 'soon' worklist. Just did the rear wheel bearings, need to find a coolant leak that has that ominous radiator end tank possibilty.

BC

The shiny stuff usually does not like Brake Clean. Hammertone may be better.

soupcan

Paint, so far so good.

GregBBRD

That would be very cool to have to match. Thanks, Dave.

I'll try and give you a call, in the morning.

GregBBRD

I've personally painted several sets...Paint doesn't hold up as well to cleaning. Paint does have its benefits...you can touch it up

RyanPerrella

COMPLETELY DISAGREE!

When i think or wrinkle finish, i think of Ferrari's which have for 50 plus years had that finish on valve covers, Lamborghini also uses the same finish on valve covers and that finish is a paint application.

The powder coated wrinkle is a "wrinkle like" finish but it doesnt produce anything like the wrinkle out of a can will produce. If you knew the look i was after i could show you a painted wrinkle and a powder coated, the powder coated wrinkle just looks like a different type of hammerite finish to me.

RyanPerrella

Greg,

Had you media stripped the parts prior? When i had mine done they were sand blasted. At first i was hopeful to get walnut shells but the sand left a very course finish, like 400 girt sandpaper almost. This allows for great surface adhesion.

Also, and i am not sure how much this really had to do with my results, but i did the alodine bath. I dont know what the chemical reaction with this stuff really does, i can say it turned the freshly blasted light grey parts into a darker grey, thats about all i noticed.

Also i am not sure if i even primed the surface honestly, or if i just sprayed the wrinkle.

One thing i was able to do with the wrinkle is that because i was not happy with the color out of the car (the red was like maroon, and the grey was dark) I was able to spray a single top coat of a much brighter red on the valve covers and an aluminum color paint on the grey manifold to get results that i was VERY HAPPY WITH!

If i were doing it again i would change some things, mainly going heavier on the wrinkle coats to get a more consistent wrinkle and perhaps more time in the over, but i was very happy and the thing never chipped, or flaked in 2 plus year. Also i remember i accidentally whacked the side of the plenum with a rubber mallet and that did nothing to the finish, what happened was that rubber from the mallet left a scar on the side of the plenum. The paint held, the malled didnt.

In short, I think you MUST media blast, Alodine worked great for me, but i dont know enough about chemicals to know if its absolutely necessary. To alodine ads about $20 to the prep cost, which in that case i would just say go ahead and do it.

BC

Ah, then you may not have seen high quality wrinkle. The red and black match the consistency of what you talk about on F-cars.

Mrmerlin

Greg here is a picture of my Yellow car. This was done in 2004
I did the covers and the intake at the same time it is a single stage ( one coating) silver powder coat, I added the lettering after with epoxy rattle can paint.
Parts were sand blasted then baked then sprayed. .
This coating looks good and seems to have not changed in color and the silver flakes pop when the sun hits them.
Since it is a poly type coating some kinds of paint thinners and brake cleaners will stain them so be advised.
By stain I mean that the top surface can get soft and if its wiped then it will lose its gloss.

The cross brace was also done in gloss black powder coat

dr bob

I've done more than a bit of Porsche engine tin (think 'early air cooled') with rattle-can wrinkle finish and have had excellent results. No worries about damage from common engine area fluids, and very forgiving appearance if something like oil does happen to get on the tin. What would leave an ugly film on the original satin/semi finish disappears on the wrinkle finish. At the time I was doing it, there was no such thing as spray Brake-Clean so no clue about how it woukd hold up to that. At the same time, I'm not sure why one would ever be using brake-clean in the engine bay anyway.

The secret I found to getting good even results is by fogging the paint on from a foot or more away, half a dozen very very thin coats, and maybe five to ten minutes between coats. Fogging means there are no heavy areas, so the wrinkle is very even. Shorten the time between coats to get a coarser wrinkled texture. I did the painting out in the sun to accelerate the cure time, so adjust some if you are painting in cooler times or indoors.

Stan, your intakes and covers look great in the pictures. My original-finish intake looks great except for a flap of paint that came off while air-gun dusting. The cam covers are silver streaked with tan, thanks to an early episode with Gunk engine cleaner. The silver ran as soon as the engine cleaner hit it, and I just couldn't get it washed off fast enough. Simple Green does the same thing on the original cover finish. For some reason the intake is a but more durable. The covers and intake were close in color originally but were not identical. Might be the slightly rougher cast texture on the intake and the different light up higher, too late to tell now. The rear edges of the covers by the cam end plugs will likely give best guidance on what it was like before I attacked it with engine cleaner.

RyanPerrella

Uh no i havent, ive seen pics of powder coated wrinkle finish and it looks OK, but not what its supposed to look like.

if youve got a good picture of a cam cover or intake in a powder coated wrinkle please post it, i would like to see what you consider high quality wrinkle.

Elmiko

I want to save some money and paint my intake, but it's the prep that has me concerned. It looks like soda blasting might be a good cost effective solution to do it yourself-setups are pretty cheap (~$250), don't seem to require lots of air pressure, and you don't need a cabinet. You can rinse the residue off your driveway with a hose, and I suspect it could be used for a lot of other things around the house, automotive and otherwise. Has anyone tried it?

GregBBRD

The stock powder coating is very hard to penetrate. I'd think that soda blasting might not be aggressive enough to do any good. When the old powder coating is loose, simple air pressure will remove it, in huge chunks. When it is stuck...you need explosives. My "old" powder coater chemically stripped the old stuff...which is nice, as it also removes all of the stuff inside.