GREAT Engine Dress UP...Painted Coil Covers!

94GTLaserRC · May 3, 2012

Finally got the hang of this, and just got my new buffer with polishing compounds, so they come out super smooth now. Here's some different color combos:

Mine:

My Friend's Candy Red (Bottom is PRE-buffing):

RACE RED:

BLACK (lightened to highlight reflection):

I highly recommend this to anyone that wants to dress up the engine bay!
RC

Juice2012 · May 3, 2012

Wow, excellent work! I'm digging that strut brace too. Sexy engine bay!

On a side note, if that's a UV filter on your lens, lose it.

94GTLaserRC · May 4, 2012

Juice2012 said:
Wow, excellent work! I'm digging that strut brace too. Sexy engine bay!

On a side note, if that's a UV filter on your lens, lose it.

Thanks for the compliment, but what's wrong with a UV filter? Protects my $800 lens.
RC

Juice2012 · May 4, 2012

94GTLaserRC said:
Thanks for the compliment, but what's wrong with a UV filter? Protects my $800 lens.
RC

You're actually at higher risk of damaging your $800 lens with that on there. The lens is meant to take a beating, but if something strikes the thin glass of the UV filter, it is very abrasive when it shatters and is more likely to damage your lens glass than if you didn't have it.

Check this out:

It isn't until the guy takes the claw side directly to the glass is he able to even mark it.

Sorry to hijack!

Ronin38 · May 4, 2012

Very nice! how did you do the carbon-fiber, or is that a new piece?

95BlueStallion · May 7, 2012

That looks good!

beviking · May 8, 2012

Wow, those are nice! That carbon fiber look is sick! Not my choice for engine bay but it is still wicked! Nice job! I'm sure up close they're nicer than mine. I used rustoleum enamel. Didn't like the chrome spears and lines so I redid them in red. Paints still drying so no pics. The blue is more like Ford blue than the robins egg blue they look like. I don't have a uv filter for my camera either

stang8urimport · May 11, 2012

Very nice looking! Looks professionally done!

I just did mine to look like the Boss 302. Spent 9 dollars on plastic prep/primer and the blue paint... Better then buying them for like 80-90 bucks!

Bojingles · May 12, 2012

beviking that is smoking hot. I think you just inspired me to do something similar.

beviking · May 12, 2012

Yeah PoopDawg and it's amazing how good they do come out with that first coat! When I sprayed mine all blue, you'd thought it was factory! It's taping and spraying in everything else that leaves less than perfect lines...at least for me anyway, but unless you're right up close, you don't really notice.

Thanks Bojingles! I was inspired by others too! Someone had their avatar as the painted engine covers...that was my first inspiration.

beviking · May 12, 2012

94Gt, are you sanding the plastic smooth before you paint? Any tips for us amatures?

Turd_Burglar · May 13, 2012

I like the way the bue looks! Same as beviking, did you have to sand? And what product did you use? And where did you get the grabber blue color? This seems like it would take some serious time to do.

BlackBuggy · May 13, 2012

PoopDawg said:
Very nice looking! Looks professionally done!

I just did mine to look like the Boss 302. Spent 9 dollars on plastic prep/primer and the blue paint... Better then buying them for like 80-90 bucks!

Yea, I'm kind of on the fence on whether or not I want to paint my originals or buy the new ones for $90. I would like to keep the originals if I ever set the car back to factory settings. I guess I could just buy new OEMs, though.

On that note, I do love the blue coil covers. Takes us back to the old days of the Boss 302 and Boss 429s when Ford had the blue valve covers.

Sparty92 · May 31, 2012

Juice2012 said:
You're actually at higher risk of damaging your $800 lens with that on there. The lens is meant to take a beating, but if something strikes the thin glass of the UV filter, it is very abrasive when it shatters and is more likely to damage your lens glass than if you didn't have it.

Check this out:

It isn't until the guy takes the claw side directly to the glass is he able to even mark it.

Sorry to hijack!

I would suspect that the tiny front element is pretty strong and well-recessed into the lens body. My lenses have 77mm front elements, at least 3x bigger that that tiny thing. Most any filter will crack and stay in place of the filter ring unless you bash the front of it. So hitting the lens from the side, or dropping it with a lens hood on will unlikely cause the filter to explode into your front element. I'd rather replace a $100 filter than the front element on a $2,000 lens. Your mileage may vary.

Juice2012 · May 31, 2012

Sparty92 said:
I would suspect that the tiny front element is pretty strong and well-recessed into the lens body. My lenses have 77mm front elements, at least 3x bigger that that tiny thing. Most any filter will crack and stay in place of the filter ring unless you bash the front of it. So hitting the lens from the side, or dropping it with a lens hood on will unlikely cause the filter to explode into your front element. I'd rather replace a $100 filter than the front element on a $2,000 lens. Your mileage may vary.

You're missing the point. The surface area of the lens is irrelevant. The point is that striking the lens with a hammer made no effect until severely striking it with the claw end, which is simulating only the most severe of accidents. Taking chips out of the glass is going to be just as difficult or easy whether the glass is 52mm or 77mm. The only difference the larger front element makes is if there is an impact strong enough to actually break it, in which no filter would ever save you.

Like I said in that post you quoted, it's not simply the fact that the front element is resilient on its own, it's the fact that if the filter shatters (which is very likely on any impact that deforms the ring), the shards of glass can very easily scratch the surface of your front element. Broken glass is very sharp, much sharper than anything else that would ever touch the front of your lens. You have to realize that those filters are very thin glass, and any impact that would damage your front element will certainly shatter your filter, thus increasing the risk of front element damage.

Hitting the lens from the side or the hood isn't going to damage the front element anyway, so the idea that it wouldn't break the filter is irrelevant.

You also run the risk of deforming the filter ring in an impact, which can permanently damage the threads on the front of the lens, as well as cause the filter to be stuck on the front of the lens. There have been instances where filters are stuck on the front so bad that the lens was damaged when trying to remove them.

Furthermore, physical damage aside, adding any extra glass to the front of the lens introduces unnecessary lens flares and halos that can compromise your photos, making your $2000 lens look like a $200 lens.

Sparty92 · Jun 2, 2012

Yeah.

95Nelson · Jul 10, 2012

Okay, this stuff all looks too cool not to try it myself. So how do you do the color in the recesses like lettering, etc.? I think I'd like to do my letters/numbers and recesses in either a dark blue (like my Kona Blue 'stang) or in red to match the point on the 5.0.

Any YouTube demos or instructions available on doing this?

94GTLaserRC · Jul 10, 2012

Ronin38 said:
Very nice! how did you do the carbon-fiber, or is that a new piece?

That is a hydrocoating..similated carbon fiber but available in all types of designs.
RC

94GTLaserRC · Jul 10, 2012

95Nelson said:
Okay, this stuff all looks too cool not to try it myself. So how do you do the color in the recesses like lettering, etc.? I think I'd like to do my letters/numbers and recesses in either a dark blue (like my Kona Blue 'stang) or in red to match the point on the 5.0.

Any YouTube demos or instructions available on doing this?

I use an airbrush..It's taken me a few mess ups to get it to a pro-like quality. After initial paint, I put a layer of clear coat over the letters..let it dry 24 hours. Then when I air brush the letters, I wipe off the over spray with a little reducer, as the clear coat is protecting the under coat from being removed by the clear. Then I clear coat the whole thing and buff it out...also took me a few tries to get this right.
RC

94GTLaserRC · Jul 10, 2012

Just finished these 3 sets for buyers:

Grabber blue, Gotta have it Green, and Triple yellow blaze

GREAT Engine Dress UP...Painted Coil Covers!

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