Valve cover painting question

[JoeyTheKid]

So I'm making my chain covers, block and valve cover on my KA look pretty and everything has been all cleaned up and ready for paint except for my calve cover. I took a wire wheel to it and removed the factory paint down to bare metal, and it appears that in some parts the metal looks like it has wrinkles for lack of better words, I would relate it to an old lady's leathered skin. They aren't that deep, but the wire wheel doesn't appear to be taking them down at all. My question is would I be able to spray a couple coats of primer on top and just sand that down to a smooth surface or would it be better just to put the extra elbow grease in and try to get the wrinkles out and have an absolute smooth surface before priming?

[blueshark123]

sand it dont prime to fill it.

[JoeyTheKid]

Awesome, that's all I needed to know. Right now all I've got is a drill with a wire wheel and some finer grit sand paper, would there be an inexpensive means to make my life easier in doing so?

[ultimateirving]

Um, not if you want it done right. You probably need some metal grade sand paper, along with a few varying grits. If you get to large of grain it will leave scratches in the metal and make it worse

[blueshark123]

final sanding grit before paint is 600 grit

You should have used air craft stripper not a wire wheel to remove that paint

[Mikester]

If it looks all wrinkled etc... you could always have it media blasted & powder coated.

[sleepyS14se]

or could have it hydro dipped! thats what i want done to mine :)

[oni jake]

Powdercoat the valve cover and don't worry about it ever again. It should be cheap, a shop local to me quoted $25 for the service. That leather appearance could be the way the metal formed when casted. As long as you sand to the proper grit levels, you'll be fine to paint it yourself. The valve cover grabs a lot of attention from tool marks, to better protect the paint from chipping, use a good etching primer.