Painting the Rocker Cover - Ford Forums

StevenAU2 · 05-16-2002, 01:16

Can anyone advise me on the best way to paint my rocker cover on my 4.0L AU.The XRs with the red look great and mine is a crappy faded silver color.I was thinking a custom color.Where would i go to get it painted or could i just use high temp paint????
Oh i also dont want it to look crappy if i was to do it myself.

StevenAU2 · 05-16-2002, 01:37

Ok il come clean,i wasnt planning on turning my AU into a "Ricer" but i thought a gloss black rocker would look great on my car.If that was too difficult to get done id hunt round for one of the XR rockers.

XR8chic · 05-16-2002, 01:53

Just make sure its clean, and give it a few coats of engine enamel.

I painted my entire engine red. looks good.

Xyphoid · 05-16-2002, 02:21

One thing that I am looking at doing for my Suzuki GSXR is polishing the Alloy Frame. I have seen this done on some Bikes on a Gixxer Forum, and looks sweet.

Be warned though, if you want to go down this path, you will need to spend a lot of time and effort to polish the Rocker cover so as it really shines !

Also, I painted some of the Plastic Bits in the Engine bay on my EF.
I used cans (non High temp paint), with plastic primer, and Clear coat, and I have had no problems with the paint fading, peeling, dulling etc for well over a year now !

A nice black colour would be the AU Metallic Black / Black Pearl !

Cheers
Matti

1AXR · 05-16-2002, 02:32

Try getting your rocker cover powder coated. it will come out a lot better than you think.
much better than paint

StevenAU2 · 05-16-2002, 02:51

Quote:

Originally posted by 1AXR
Try getting your rocker cover powder coated. it will come out a lot better than you think.
much better than paint

Yeah u could be right,but would it stand up to the engine bay heat??? Also i want the writing on the top still silver like the XRs so would i then have to scratch off the coating??? Or just tell them i wanted it like that.

SM · 05-16-2002, 03:15

Powder coating can withstand approx 100 deg celcius. Just clean it well using prepsol or similar product, paint it using a can of spray engine enamel, VHT have plenty of colours, and then using a sanding block and a bit of wet and dry carefully sand back the raised section. Should be able to do it for around $15. Powder coaters normally have a minimum fee of around $50.

batbo6 · 05-16-2002, 08:21

Quote:

Originally posted by 1AXR
Try getting your rocker cover powder coated. it will come out a lot better than you think.
much better than paint

I got the rocker cover on my EF Fairmont powder coated red about 2 years before I sold it. It looked good for a while but started to "melt" in places. The brake booster hose caused the powder coat to melt, some of the plug leads were sitting on the cover, same story. It started to flake off around the oil filler cap thread, each time I took the cap off pieces of red powder coat would drop into the engine that I would have to fish out.

I personally would either paint in enamel or high temp spray paint.
ps. some one mentioned polishing the alloy. I had an 1964 Daimler 2.5litre V8 that had alloy heads, rocker covers and intake tubes. I polished the lot with autosol (think thats how its spelled)alloy polish, the polish worked really easily and they stayed shiny for months.

b-juggles · 05-16-2002, 15:33

i got mine a cherry red...its looks sooooo sweet. its not really a rice mod IMO (i liken it to colour coding your bars)

- had a mate do it in enamel. - didn take the cover off, jus went crazzzzzzy with masking tape and plastic.

The hardest part is taping everything up....oh yeah and becareful around the oil cap cos you have to take this off and TRY not to spray shit on the cam/lifters etc.

Final result, looks a million bucks, and cost me $12!!!!!

younggun · 05-17-2002, 19:31

so when you guys all did this did you actually take the rocker cover off?? and if you did, how did you go with the gasket breaking?? did it happen to anyone, and if it did, how much is it roughly to replace?

Last question, does anyone know on the AU if the gasket is rubber or cork?? Im assuming rubber...

cheers

steve