Lude Generation

I would like to tidy my engine bay up a bit, nothing major, but things like the rocker cover cover let it down. The rocker cover is not that bad but not that good either. I don't have the time, inclination or skill to be refurbing mine myself so I was looking at buying one, but companies like htune and tegiwa want £250 for a freshly painted rocker cover, are there any other options which are cheaper? It has to be red by the way

In addition are there any other bits people would recommend doing at the same time? I have some new magnecor ht leads to go on, any other dress up bits that would liven it up a bit under the bonnet?

I'm sure ratty used to do rocker refurbs, not sure if he does anymore? Worth an ask maybe.

Clean up the bay using wd40, a clean rag and an old toothbrush - you'd be amazed how many hours this can take but totally worth it! Plus a bit of hammerite on certain parts like the top radiator mounts etc makes things look nicer.

Also a new colourful dizzy cap looks good, you can buy nice new VTEC solenoid covers for cheap, reservoir socks, if you still have an exhaust manifold cover refurbing them looks good, a cooling plate improves the look of an engine bay (if they do them for a 5g, I'm not sure), and a clean/refurbed spark plug cover always looks nice too

Its not too time consuming to do a valve cover. Buy a second hand one, then you can prep it up a little bit at a time, then swap over when its done.

trick to getting the wrinkle just right is to heat up the part before you paint it, just for 5 minutes or so with a heat gun all over... Put the paint on thick as instructed , and the wrinkle is very pleasing - Ive done 3 now and other than the first one being slightly flat (not warm enough and not thick enough coat), the last couple came out brill.

If the rest of the engine bay isn't upto scratch mind, a fresh valve cover will stick out a bit too much - i have to admit mine stands out quite badly but then again im not fussed with cosmetics - only painted it because it was off and had more silver than red showing and i had the paint...

Thanks guys, @RattyMcClelland do you still do the rocket cover refurbs?

My engine bay is pretty clean but I would just like to spruce it up a bit. I think the rocker cover, maybe a spoon sock or two and a deep clean with wd40 as drax suggested would be a good start. I have a Mugen manifold on it but it could do with polishing or wrapping, not sure I can be bothered with that though!

I don't need to change the rocker cover gasket again when taking the rocker cover off do I, it has only recently been done

Gasket should be fine bud. Its when they start going hard and brittle they don't seal well.

The ones from tegiwa aren't refurbed. There brand new oem but pricey.

newkid wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 11:55 am

Gasket should be fine bud. Its when they start going hard and brittle they don't seal well.

The ones from tegiwa aren't refurbed. There brand new oem but pricey.

It is tempting as they are brand new.......

I stopped doing them as it wasn't cost effective.
It takes about 2 hours and the price Id charge to match everyone else is about half of what I would earn doing normal bumper scuffs.

Spooner restorations on facebook specialise in refurbs of rocker covers, calipers and small items like that.

RattyMcClelland wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 10:43 pm

It takes about 2 hours

Blimey thats quick.

mine took me 3 times that lol

Hagland-BB4 wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 08, 2019 9:08 pm

RattyMcClelland wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 10:43 pm

It takes about 2 hours

Blimey thats quick.

mine took me 3 times that lol

It's my job. A typical bumper scuff repair will take me 1hr 30mins and that's waiting 30mins for the lacquer to cure with infra red heat lamps.

I personally don't rate the VHT wrinkle red paint, it's too orange. OEM finish isn't a wrinkle finish. It's more of a fine dotted texture.
So I strip, etch prime, SEM fine texture or standard texture paint which is black.
White base coat. Followed by a very darker/bluer variant of milano red and then Matt lacquered.

If you saw my cadbury purple one in my profile, this was my first go, paint stripped, etch prime and then 3 coats of high temp cadbury purple pearl through 1.3mm lvlp gun