Blackpanther99

iTrader: (8)

Man thats sick!! What paint and materials dis you use??

Cajun ELESS-ONE

very clean sir

Wicked69

These valve covers look sick! How are you guys cutting down the bosses? Are you just using a grinding wheel and grinding them down or cutting them down first and then grinding down more?

Also, the lettering....is that paint or a decal that you had made?

Thanks. Getting ready to start on mine.

OIF1VET

iTrader: (54)

I cut mine close, then ground smooth. I used jb weld to fill my stuff. The lettering on those valve covers looks like the letters off the doors glued to the valve cover, I could be wrong though.

Wicked69

cool, thanks.

a98ws6

iTrader: (48)

On mine, i cut the bosses down and grinded them down. Any holes i filled with epoxy. I actually removed the two top tubes on my covers because i ran breathers. I had the two tube holes welded up.
A friend of mine painted the covers for me and the lettering is new door lettering, but you could do decals also. I was going for a 3d look.

QucikSilver

iTrader: (4)

Here are some updated pics of how the project is coming along. I had just a little bit of bleed through from doing the inlay decal. Will be getting that fixed as soon as I have time, then going to clear and polish them. Sorry for the crap pics, camara is acting up.

QucikSilver

iTrader: (4)

I cut the bosses down with sawzall, ground them down with a harbor freight hand held belt sander, bead blasted them, and smoothed them with sanding wheel on my drill. Took about four hours to do both covers.

OIF1VET

iTrader: (54)

Looks great OP!

DaRReLL

iTrader: (4)

Looking good...

QucikSilver

iTrader: (4)

I really cant wait to get the clear on it and polished after the logos get cleaned up.

KingPin1094

iTrader: (12)

Forgive me for possibly asking a stupid question, but i havent taken my engine apart yet. What are those perches/holes for? and the two tubes on the top? the one guy on here said he was taking them out cause he was going to use a breather. why?

9t8z28

iTrader: (19)

How do you guys get the filler neck off without it breaking? I tried and it seems like it is gonna break.

AGearHead4Life

iTrader: (5)

Maybe try a lubricant. Theres an o-ring in there. It all gets dry and hard to remove. Wiggle it and get it to rotate. It twists like a half turn to remove.

9t8z28

iTrader: (19)

Ok cool. Ill give it a try

AGearHead4Life

iTrader: (5)

Yea, it locks in and on the same way that you oil cap does. I've removed my truck filler neck and put the oil fill cap directly onto my valve cover.

A-man930

iTrader: (2)

sorry to revive.

Mine did break. Don't need it if the coils aren't mounted on the covers any more. And the bosses that are being ground down here are for the ignition coil brackets.

Would like to see how these turned out!

krwyellowZ28

iTrader: (10)

Bump for finished install pics.

02SSTtop

Don't mean to resrect an old thread but glad I'm not the only who hates how rough the casting is on the LS valve covers. I'm in the process of building up the 5.3L while I'm waiting for my parts to get here on friday I have smoothed out the rough brackets to get a nice finish for the paint and now I'm working on the valve covers. Real slow work with a fine file to get that ugly nasty casting off around the edge cover. I could always buy a nice set for a couple hundred bucks I guess but something to be said for doing it yourself!

themealonwheels

iTrader: (20)

I wanted to bump this up to thank the OP for initially posting all the work, but to also send out a little word of caution...

PsychoSid and I bought an oven and some powder coating equipment, he'll no doubt put a thread together eventually about all his work. But in the mean time, we're fighting the valve covers. What's happening is every time we put the covers in the oven to get the base coat set, the filler (JB Weld) in the holes rises up, then sets back down when it cools.

I suspect the heat is expanding the gas behind the JB weld, causing them to press out of the cover. We've done it twice now on the same valve covers with the same result. Painting rather than powdercoating would obviously resolve this, but we have such a nice blue to put down!

Anyway, we've got two options to pursue. One, drill a small hole in the inside of the cover for each of those holes to breathe. Two, drill out the JB Weld and fill it with a different material. Supposedly Lab Metal is good for it, but I'm leaning toward the drilling.

Maybe I can get him to post some pics here when he's got time...