Frustrated as Hell I've spent the last week trying unsuccessfully to accomplish what should have been the simple task of painting my valve covers. I'll warn in advance this is likely to be as much a bitch fest as it is a project update. I can't figure out WTF is going on.
I spent last weekend restoring all the small tin and brackets on the engine which entailed cleaning them, media blasting to bare metal, and painting with
VHT black satin engine paint. I'll post some pics on that when I'm less pissed off but other than being tedious work, went without a hitch. My only complaint is that some of the pieces show some rust pitting from living in the Midwest but these are all pieces mostly or fully hidden from view anyway so that's minor.
The last items to paint were the valve covers. Those got extra attention since they are kind of a focal point of a well-dressed engine. I had 3 sets of covers to pick from. All have pits from salt damage but one set had much less than the others so that's the one I picked. Of course, that was also the only set that was dented and banged up so after de-greasing, then blasting to bare metal, I spent some time with hammer and dolly to make them presentable. Then they were cleaned and dried again, wiped with dewaxer, blown dry and tacked off before applying three coats of
VHT Engine Enamel primer. The primer is optional but is supposed to promote adhesion. More importantly, it was the only thing I could think to fill some of the rust pits and remaining small dings since the TDSs for all the body fillers I have don't list max temp ratings, and I haven't seen a high temp high build primer. I've used this primer before and had just applied it to other pieces without any trouble.
The directions on the primer are to allow 10 minutes flash time between coats and 30 minutes before wet sanding or applying top coat. I was applying the coats a little heavier than normal to build up some thickness so doubled the between coats flash time and waited a couple hours before wet sanding. Everything looked great up to this point. The paint dried as expected and after wet sanding with 400 grit, about 80% of the pits and other imperfections were concealed.
Click to view attachment After cleaning and dewaxing, I applied a light coat of primer just enough to cover bare metal exposed by the sanding followed by two light, and one medium-wet coat of the top coat (again,
VHT engine paint) according to can directions. The covers looked fantastic and I left them to dry overnight.
The next morning I picked up one of the covers to inspect and was surprised that my fingers stuck to a sticky goo. I've lost count of the number of cans of this paint I've sprayed, and not once has it not dried enough to be handled within an hour. Looking at the covers, I could see splotches that were shiny and wet while the other areas had cured to a satin finish. Many of the wet areas had a wrinkled finish so even if they eventually dried, they would look like shit. I also noticed the satin finish was more flat than the previous several cans I had sprayed which was kind of annoying, but I didn't think much else of it. Another weird thing is that I had used this same can of paint to put a final coat on a few of the other pieces and they all dried just fine, but with that duller finish.
My thinking was that either I hadn't allowed enough time for that final coat of primer to flash before spraying top coat, or the primer had soaked up water during wet sanding and I hadn't allowed enough time to dry. So, I media blasted the covers back down to bare metal and started over.
This time I let the covers dry overnight after wet sanding and let the final light coat of primer dry for several hours before top coating. Again, they looked fantastic and I hung them to dry before leaving home for a conference for three days. I went out to check on them this morning and I'll be damned if the same f'ing thing didn't happen again. Here's what it looked like:
Click to view attachment It wasn't as bad as the first time and I think the three days of drying did allow more of the paint to cure. I decided to switch tactics and put the covers in the oven to drive out any solvent or moisture trapped in the paint. I baked them at 200F for about 45 minutes and the paint blistered in several areas even though the paint is rated for 550F. I'm pretty sure the blistering was solvent (or moisture) pop. After baking, all of the paint was dry, hard, and cured, but rough where it blistered. The next step was to wet sand again to sand out the blistered areas and level out the surface.
Click to view attachmentThen they went back in the oven for an hour to make sure they were dry, dry, dry. Then they were wiped with dewaxer and blown dry with compressed air before applying two light and one medium wet top coat (no additional coat of primer this time). After 3 hours of drying, I checking on them and found large areas wet, gooey, and wrinkled again.
Click to view attachment Click to view attachment The area on top where primer is showing is where I wiped lightly across with a rag. That paint simply isn't setting up. They are now baking again to harden the paint and then I'll blast them back to bare metal again, but then what?
I'm at the point where I think I got a shitty can of paint which is now used up. This is too much work to keep going in circles though. I may have to see what it would cost to have just these covers powder coated. For now, I need a drink.
Although it sucked losing that engine, the incident led to one of the most fun and memorable days of my life.
That particular plate is already taken, or at least was up to a few years ago. Although the controversy has died down quite a bit since they were delisted, passions about wolves still run high around here. Any plate with the word "wolf" on it is an invitation to have your car keyed. Still, you see them quite a bit. I used to see a pickup truck with the "No Wolf" plate fairly regularly on I-90 outside of Bozeman. We also had a neighbor with "WOLF LVR" on his plates. He's now sitting in prison for stockpiling illegal weapons and threatening to blow up the sherrif's office. As for future plans... that was a once in a lifetime deal and I'm way too old to try that again.
Nobody would dare key a car with "Adolph" on the plates. 
