thats likely because blue oval valve covers dont have the chevrolet script on them to keep black after painting the covers orange
Hello, On my friend’s 1957 283 Chevy Bel Air, white, 2 door hardtop, he bought a set of aluminum finned valve covers. We had a project going on and he wanted it to look nice. A Corvette owner had dual quads. He was unsatisfied with the drivability of the dual quads. Plus, he did not like that the 4 barrel was used all of the time. So, we traded the dual quads onto the 57 Chevy Bel Air 283 and took his 4 barrel carburetor for the Corvette. The swap was pretty simple. Both guys were happy with the results. The Corvette guy had a simple 4 barrel carb unit that was very easy to drive and my friend had his dual quads for more horsepower. Plus, the cost of the swap was free as we did all of the work for the more expensive dual quad system. Soon after the swap, my friend and I went to the local speed shop to buy a set of finned valve covers. We put them on and he was very happy. The white engine compartment was very clean, the dual quads were impressive and now with the finned valve covers, it looked complete. But, for some reason, my friend said the valve covers looked a little bland. So, we ran different color tape inside of the fins to see which color looked the best. Jnaki After several different tries of color, cutting, looking and then peeling them off for the next application of color, we had decided on black as a good contrast to the motor and white compartment. But, while we were contemplating how to paint just the deep area between the fins, his mom came outside and gave us a couple of sandwiches and cokes. She said the usual parent/teenage stuff and asked what we were doing. When we explained, she had a great idea that she demonstrated. With some narrow art masking tape, she said to lay down strips as low as the black paint should go on the fins. With the straight fins as a model, taping was pretty easy. So, once both side of the fins had their tape pattern, she brought out the bottle of rubber cement. After coating the single fin the whole distance, and then continuing on to the other fins, the valve cover was ready for the spray paint. Thin butcher paper was used for the larger parts of the valve cover and when ready, only the deep channels were exposed. The black spray went on easily. Drying was simple and when it was ready, she said to just roll off the rubber cement. The rubber cement just came off easy and the result was a nice aluminum set of fins with no black paint on them and the channels were a nice contrasting black. YRMV Note: Years later, during our photo darkroom experiments we used rubber cement on various black and white photos. In one photo, my wife wore some silver wire frame, round glasses, so popular at the time. But, I wanted the black and white photo to show color on the lenses only and used the rubber cement around the circular pattern of the round frames. Then the photo was coated with a thin coating of rubber cement and left the lense areas black and white. When the whole photo was dipped in light red food color dye, the resulting photo was a black and white photo with only the round glasses lenses with a color. The finished photo trays did their thing and the result was a cool, odd looking custom photo that no one else had… It was pure, “Looking at the world through rose colored lenses,” to the “nth” degree. YRMV
I got lucky on Craigslist, found some 62’ 327 valve covers with the original hold downs. Glass beaded both sides, washed in hot soap and water, dried, did some miner body work, primed, sanded and applied 3 coats of good old Chevy orange. Applied new 327 logo stickers and call them good!
I actually cleaned and spray painted my polished aftermarket valve covers red that I used on my '32 pickup, I let them dry for about a half hour and then took a rag wrapped around my finger and soaked it in lacquer thinner and gently wiped the raised ridge to expose the polished aluminum and that left the red in the recesses. HRP
On Chevy script valve covers I paint the whole valve cover, and then use a hard roller I found for print work. I roll it on a piece of foam rubber coated in thinned paint, and after masking around the outer perimeter of the raised lettering, I roll on the paint. Try not to get it so heavy it can run, and just do 2-3 light coats. On aluminum valve cover I paint them and after they're well dried I sand the high spots I want bare. If there's any areas large enough to mask, i mask those off before paint, so I only sand the smaller places.
The engine in the Ranch Wagon had nasty aluminum valve covers that had seen better days. I decided to paint the entire engine and valve covers a cast metal color. Since I didn't try and polish the valve covers I decided to do much like the valve covers on the pickup but this time I used a paint paddle and 220 sandpaper to achieve a polished look to the raise part. HRP
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