my new album

i just realized that my new header looks like my folk album cover.

street heat

i love my car. it looks pretty good, gets decent gas mileage, is kind of fast when it needs to be, and has a sunroof and working a/c. it's also fairly reliable despite having over 236,000 miles. i recently had to replace the spark plug tube seals and the valve cover gasket, so as a show of respect i decided i would repaint the valve cover.

here is what i did:

removing the valve cover

i pulled the spark plug boots, removed all the hoses that were connected to the valve cover, then removed the valve cover nuts. i lost a nut and it drove me insane. luckily i had a regular nut that fit.

cleaning that shit

this is what the old vc looked like:




as you can see, about half the paint has chipped off and it is greasy and basically looks like some doodoo. to remove the old paint i got a spray can of paint remover from autozone. this stuff is lethal. i've heard people say to leave it on for 24 hours, but it will chew through the old paint immediately. it burns like a bastard if you get it on your skin. i used sandpaper and a toothbrush to get the more annoying crevaces and made sure it was completely free of the old paint.

to make sure it got nice and clean i sprayed it down with engine degreaser and gave it a rinse. i let it dry and was ready to paint.

painting

i shoved masking tape in any holes i didn't want to get paint in and hit it with about three coats of primer, then another three or four of glossy red. it's good to pull the tape off while the paint is still a little wet otherwise some of your paint is bound to peel off where you don't want it to. i sanded down the honda "H" and "honda motor company" lettering, and this is what it looks like now: