BPG_Austin

*SOLD*

I have a powdercoated S3 intake/cam cover set for sale. I’d like to sell this on a core exchange basis so I have something to play with in the future. Price is $660 for the intake/oil filler neck and cam covers with the exchange of your parts. After your final cleaning (washing), these parts are ready to bolt on! I also have the engine cross brace, waterbridge and t-stat housing available if anyone would like to complete the set. Crossbrace is in gloss black and bridge/t-stat in silver. The crossbrace is $35, watebridge/t-stat housing assembly is $55.
I borrowed the hardware and silicon boots from a friend to hold everything together for pictures. They are available from a supplier, but not for sale with this set.

Process: All parts were stripped to bare metal and off-gassed. All holes plugged and mating surfaces masked. The insides of the cam covers were also masked and left bare metal. The cam cover pits were filled with lab metal filler and sanded smooth. The surface finish on the cam covers is very nice and even. After stripping and off-gassing everything was shot with a powdercoat primer/sealer. The primer helps seal in further off-gassing as well as smooths out the finish for topcoating. Any further blemishes were sanded out of the primer before topcoat. I shot the Intake plenum in a singlestage silver (as close as I could find to factory), and the cam covers done in a lightly textured red.
Lots of time and care were spent on this refinish. I hope it finds a good home!
Ben

Mike Frye

Dude, I don't know how you did that.

When I stripped the cam covers and the intake runners to bare metal I found that there had been a LOT of filler used to make it look nice. There were lots of casting imperfections and seams visible. Did you do anything to build those up or smooth them out at all?

That's a good price for someone that just wants to get it done. The amount of prep and effort required to get them looking that nice is well worth that much money.

Tom in Austin

I saw these in person at our last GTG and they are every bit as nice as the pictures! Ben did a ton of work and it shows.

BPG_Austin

Hey Mike! The short answer is.. it was a lot of work. This was actually a pretty decent set from the start. No lab metal needed on the runners, only some smoothing of the primer prior to topcoat. The cam covers were like all the rest. Just a lot of blocking of the covers themselves to knock off high spots, then filling of the pits with lab metal. Nothing miraculous, just time consuming to do it right. Thanks for the props!

Benton

HUBBA HUBBA! Nice work, Ben! How difficult is the Lab Metal to sand? I will be using some in the next few weeks on a project.

Mike Frye

Sorry, didn't see the part in the OP where you said you built it up with lab metal. (responded before my first cup of coffee-- never a good idea ).

Very nice work though. Looks great.

BPG_Austin

thanks Mark! Pretty strait forward, follow the directions. Don't put it on too thick, let set up for 24 hrs, then bake at 400+ for an hour for full cure. I use a pretty course grit to block it out. (p150 I think, without looking). Don't put on more than you need, otherwise you waste a lot of time sanding. But, it does block easily and quickly.

dcrasta

:#Shaking fist at empty wallet!

Those covers look sweet! . GLWS!

MarkRobinson

Yes, I too have seen these in person: better than the factory & lots of care to ensure a long, shiny life. Ben I need a set for my race engine!

Herman K

Nice work Ben

BPG_Austin

Thanks guys! Mark, now that you've got some down time with your engine... you can drop that intake off at my house.
I'll give this a bump in the morning, then post in the general classifieds. Hope she finds a home!

BG

fbarnhill

Man, I just finished mine and it doesn't look anywhere near this nice. I paid I think about 200.00 just to PC the cam covers and they didn't remove the imperfections. They wanted another 300 to do the intake tubes. I decoded to paint instead. So, I spent tons and tons of hours sanding and using a wire wheel on the bench grinder to get them all down to bare metal. I then sanded them all smoothe, used the best primer that was reccomended, can't remmeber what it was off top of my head, then painted the parts with wrinkle black and red. Well, as some of you know, I put them on and took them back off so many times that the paint just chipped off like it was corn flakes. At one time, I had it so beautiful and I was so proud of myself, then when I saw how easy the paint chipped off, I spent the time again at the bench grinder with gentle wire wheel stripping the paint back off. Now the center tubes are just the natural color. I will never go with paint on an intake again. If I had just had it PC'd by someone like this, I would be a very happy camper. I would be on this in a flash but have already gone way over budget. If you are going to offer this as a service, I would love to have my cross tubes, 2 on front and 2 in rear done in a textrured black and the center tube done in the red you have on those covers. PM me a price and I will see if I can find enough stuff to sell to come up with the dough.

Congratulations on the best intake PC job I have seen to date,

BPG_Austin

Morning bump, and I'll let this head down the list. Posted in RL classifieds.

MarkRobinson

Yeah Ben I have the intake off, cam covers, etc. We'll hit up lunch maybe Monday or this weekend??

Mark

BPG_Austin

Sure, shoot me an e-mail. I'm around this week.