Not A Ricer

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.

 

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

I painted my entire engine red. looks good.

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

bad experience with powder coating

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.

 

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!!!!!

 

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

 

They are rubber, they shouldn't break if you are carefull.

 

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.

Thanks for the advice XR8SAM il giv this a go,and thanks everyone else for your input.

 

I painted my rocker cover with engine enamel in lite Ford blue (didn't expect it to be that light) as my avitar shows. I did this because the original paint had cracked and pealed in certain places. I removed the paint with paint stripper and a paint scrapper, washed the excess chemicals off, let it dry, then applied several coats of enamel over a period of time, and re-installed it and ran the engine to cure the paint. Looks great and comes up nice and smooth. I also replaced the gasket with a proper Ford one because the old one was leaking.
For a non painted one I'd suggest using a wire brush attachment in a drill to get rid of any corrosion, and use degreaser for any oil stains, and then paint it with the enamel of your choice.
Best of luck if you want to try it.

 

Get it chromed it would cost about 150 i think maybe a bit less.

 

gasket is re-useable, its only rubber, but it will have stretched, you can push it in tightly and it fits and stays, then you have to watch it when you put the cover back on.

I had painted mine a red with high temp paint, but it looked a bit poxy, so i resprayed it in light blue, pretty much similar to V8Rumbles rocker cover, and it came up a treat. i sanded down the red somewhat, and then applied the blue enamel, and its much cooler than the red used to be after a thrashing, and it hasnt faded or pealed still looks perfect, mind you i polished it up with meguiers too.

watch when putting gasket back on, the rocker cover is sharp where the gasket is, poor finish (well on mine anyway) and i sliced a 2cm line thru my finger, and boy did it hurt!

originaly i paint stripped mine also, and it comes up a lot better, ad the original paint EF/L is quite coarse.

btw theres wrinkly paint you can buy now, spray it on, and it wrinkles up, but still sticks to the cover, and wont peal off. I reckon that would very cool!

 

This wrinkly paint sounds alright..... Does anyone know where it would be available, I have never seen it. Or is there some websites about it??

cheers

steve

 

Im with Winged..... Get it chromed mate either in silver or Black chrome would look sweet

 

just get a good brand of paint no cheap shit
and it will be fine .

 

This wrinkly paint sounds alright..... Does anyone know where it would be available, I have never seen it. Or is there some websites about it??

cheers

steve

Most hardware stores would have it.

 

Im with Winged..... Get it chromed mate either in silver or Black

I didnt even know there was a black chrome?????