Plenum cover project.

[TheTeacher]

I tried painting my plenum cover Black for kicks about 8 months ago, and royally fucked it up through a series of mistakes and not knowing what I was doing. (Don't put the final coat on in your Garage while its Raining)

So after an hour of sanding and paint removal I ended up with THIS:

I thought I would just throw it away, but it hung out in my garage and this summer (I am a teacher) I thought "fuck it" Ill try again.

After hours and hours of Sanding, I finally put on the first few coats of Black and it looked like this:

I wasn't happy with the way it looked, so Decided to add some Silver on the raised plastic portions, so then it looked like this:

The last thing I did was brush the Pony emblem with some super fine sandpaper, because I thought it looked too much like Plastic, and it worked and it looks more like a piece of Aluminum now.

The photo sucks because of light and glare, but this is the final product.

And Finally I put it back on the car, where it had been missing for many months.

In my opinion it makes the rest of the engine bay look dirty and boring, but I am overall happy with how it turned out, but probably wasn't worth the time I put into it.

 

[Redfire_WNL]

It looks better then just the stock manifold showing and take off the valve covers and spray those that will be my next thing to do probably this week with some VHT Engine paint.

 

[LAStang1234]

Not too shabby! Your right it does make the rest of the engine look like ass! lol

 

[2NY]

painted mine myself also..its not too bad after you have done a few things before..i still want to paint the raised lettering black..just been lazy

 

[Docktour Z]

Probably because the engine bay is dirty! Clean that fucker!!! Nice job though, came out really clean.

 

[ReMustang05]

I painted mine black and the "valve" covers when I put my engine in. This is the best shot I have.

 

[69Mach1-409]

Very nice!

 

[stkjock]

came out nice....

 

[MELLOWYELLOW06]

Whats the best way to get the raised part done? By hand, Im assuming?

 

[TheTeacher]

Whats the best way to get the raised part done? By hand, Im assuming?

I did it by hand and it looked like shit. Then i tried taping it and hand painting, still looked like shit.

So I went back, taped off the area around the raised portions, spray painted that whole section Silver. Then I taped the raised portions. Using an exacto it took about an hour, the letters are a pain.
Then I repainted it all black.
I had to do more sanding because there were visable raised lines, but I just used a 400 grit paper, sanded them down, then did another coat of black.

The silver paint wanted to flake real bad, so I ended up putting on 2 coats of clear enamel. It makes it look a little gloss than I originally intended, but its growing on me.

If I did it over I think I could do the whole thing pretty quickly. Here is what I would do:

1) tape off those plastic gasket things.
2) Remove the pony, unless you want to paint it.
3) Paint the entire thing the color you wanted the raised portions to be.
4) Tape off the raised portions.
5) Repaint the entire topside the color you want it to be.
6) Do some light sanding, and do another coat.
7) Remove tape from the raised portions, and then add a clear protectant on the entire topside.
8) Re-attach the pony emblem. (I used a high heat super glue)

 

[irishpwr46]

 

[ixtlan]

Mine started as a used BBK.
Did some filing and this and that and then had my son some spray some bed liner on it.
The emblem is a old Ford V-8 emblem from the 30's if I remember.

 

[TheTeacher]

Show off!

 

[irishpwr46]

Show off!

mine started just like yours did actually. wasnt happy with my handywork so i had it done by someone. you did a lot better than i could

 

[ixtlan]

mine started just like yours did actually. wasnt happy with my handywork so i had it done by someone. you did a lot better than i could

It looks DAMN GOOD though!!
Ya got to admit.
Nice Irish

 

[rmays]

I like it! Looks good and I know it takes a ton of work did it myself and hated it. But once its done it changes the look inside the engine bay.