Properly Painting a Valve cover

[DMC]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone can tell me how to properly paint a valve cover.

-The valve cover already has stock paint on it, so how should i go about removing that? I was told airplane stripper, what is this?
-The spray paint can says to heat the painted material at 300 degrees for an hour or so, should I do this? Does anyone have experience with this?
-I was told to put vaseline on the letters to keep paint off of them, could someone elaborate on this so i don't mess up my paint job?
-On the inside of the valve cover there is like a layer of metal that has sealant all around it, will this sealant be ok in the oven?

Thanks in advance.

[Ghst 01]

somebody hurry up and answer this... cuz i been wanting to this to mine........

[SleepySR]

I painted Steeles valve cover and Intake manifold. i sanded them down with 320 on a DA then used some " ting" ( soap with grit in it )and a red scotch brite pad then cleaned with some pre cleaner ( rubbbing alchol works ) and sealed it with epoxy primer , then sprayed my base coat then the pearl then 3 coats of clearcoat

[GonadSX]

- Clean valve cover with alcohol or some sorta cleaner
- Use paint stripper to strip away existing paint
- Sand with low grit sandpaper (100)
- If you have them, work your way up to higher grit (200, 400, 800, 1000). I just used 100 and then 400.
- After sanding it down, clean the valve cover off again
- Grab some metal paint. Hold can a good 12" or so away and spray in left-to-right motion
- Spray one coat, wait 15-20min for it to dry. Spray 2nd coat. And 3rd, and so forth

That's basically how I did mine. Came out fine. You don't have to over do it for professional look.

[Nismo240SX]

do the same as the previous post, but bake it at 350 to burn off any extra oils/ left cleaners so your paint will stick.

[RedlineRacer]

Aircraft stripper works good. Just make sure you are using gloves or water with it, it burns your hands if you are not using gloves or alot of water. You can buy it at Advance or any parts store. Just spray it on and get a rag (some old rag that you will throw away) and wipe it off. Then I'd have it powder coating. It will look much better down the road having it powder coated.

[WilloW]

Sandblast, and then powdercoat.