
A Better Looking Valve Cover
Author: Michael Yount
I’ve never been much of a fan of chrome and polish. Some love it…..not my favorite. So I thought I’d do something about that on this car. Lucky for me, the previous owner included a couple of boxes of parts and there was a spare valve cover in there. My friend Brad (thanks!) glass beaded the cover for me. Provides a great painting surface. I used a self-etching primer and painted the cover satin black. I replaced the vent packing with some new steel wool. And also made some ‘baffles’ out of aluminum screen.


I wanted a little interest beyond the satin black. So I masked it up carefully with frog tape – and highlighted the parallel channels on top of the cover in red. Also added one of my wheel center caps to the oil fill cap – the vintage Toyota logo. And now – I finished plumbing the catch can.



Clean and simple. Great look. Definitely brings back memories of wrinkle black valve covers with polished ridges I used to do.
I would suggest brass wool instead of steel wool for a baffle.
thx Lee!