Cam Covers

[cass3958]

Looking at Orlando's rebuild and his shiny cam covers reminded me that mine are fading a bit and need a new polish. I am fitting a stake down kit in the next month or so and this will give me the opportunity to re polish my cam covers when they are off.

Once I have polished them though does anyone know of a coating I can apply to protect them and the shine?

Originally when I did my rebuild I polished the covers and then used a high temp lacquer to protect them but this only lasted six months or so before it started to turn yellow so I had to scrape this off and have left them bare metal for now. Polishing the cam covers in situ is not easy with the air filter housing in the way and they are no longer as shiny as they were. If it has been damp the Alloy tends to fur up and the shine fades even with a vigorous rub down with Autosol.

These are the stages I went through to get them shiny but they are now looking more like the part polished cam cover in photo one.

The stages involved cleaning then with a degreaser then starting with a rough grade emery paper to get all the blemishes out they were rubbed down. The emery paper was exchanged for wet and dry and the grade went from 120 down to about 2000 grit before I used the polishing mop wheel on my bench grinder to get the final shine. Autosol was then liberally applied to get the deep shine which as I said I sprayed with a high temperature lacquer to seal the surface but this turned yellow and had to be removed.

[Glyn Ruck]

For the original factory look a regular rub down with Autosol & newspaper. I don't know of any coating that will stay on & protect them. Try talking to your local alloy wheel powder coat specialist. They can do clears today as do Cerakote. Whether they will look right & last underbonnet is another matter. Good luck.

[cass3958]

Autosol and a newspaper! I have heard of cleaning windows with a newspaper but never the camcovers. I will have to try it but first need to go out and buy a newspaper.

[Orlando St.R]

'I will have to try it but first need to go out and buy a newspaper.' That's funny.

My cam covers were professionally polished, because here's how they looked when the engine rebuilders finished with them:

V__2445.jpg (172.73 KiB) Viewed 1554 times

Since then, I've really just cleaned them a couple of times a year with a rag and WD40. I think it helps that my garage is integral, so never goes below 12C, and very low humidity. They never get that condensation on them which causes the oxidisation.