A couple years ago I needed something to do at the MMC’s Tech Day and I though my little oil drippings on the garage floor were from a leaking valve cover gasket, so I bought a new one to put in that Saturday. While I had the cover off I figured I needed to paint it red gain about 5 rear-wheel HP. So I headed on down to my local chain parts store and picked up a can of VHT Wrinkle Plus Coating.
It turned out I didn’t paint the cover, too much work, so the can of paint has remained in a cabinet in the garage. Back when I was looking for a muffler to try out for fixing the now ugly exhaust note, one member of the Club offered his stock unit up for the job. I went another way (I’m looking at you Mr. Borla), but I offered him the can of wrinkle paint as a token of my appreciation for his generous offer. He declined.
Fast forward to last Friday and seeing as I had some of the valve cover parts off the car while troubleshooting the VVT issue and I had about a 5 day wait for the o-ring/gasket set to get here from California, I decided now might a good time to try that painting it red thing again. Friday night I used some Simple Green and a toothbrush to clean up the cover. Saturday morning I fine cleaned the rest of it with some brake cleaner and q-tips. Next I masked off the 8 to 10 machined surfaces and oil return connections. Saturday afternoon I painted that sucker red. Instructions said to let it sit a couple hours and it should start to wrinkle up as it dries.
It did start wrinkling, but there were several spots that were still smooth as, well, freshly sprayed paint. Further down the can it said that if it wrinkles didn’t form to hit those spots with another coat. For final curing place in a 200° oven and bake for 1 hour. Somehow I didn’t think that Donna would have taken kindly to me placing that engine part in the same place as she bakes cookies in, so I didn’t even broach the subject. Who cares if I’ve got a few non-wrinkly areas, not me.
Today the o-ring/gasket was set in the mailbox, so tonight I buttoned every thing back up and at least started the car to check for leaks. None were obvious, so I shut the car back down. It was raining to heavy to go for a full-fledged shakedown cruise. Maybe tomorrow.
While researching a link for the paint I was at the VHT web sight and noticed at the bottom of the page for the paint a little blurb:
VHT Wrinkle Plus only attains its unique properties after correct curing.
– Bake at 200°F (93°C) for 20 minutes.
– The inherent heat of engine operation will also accomplish curing.
I wonder if that second one will still work if the paint has been drying for 3 days before I get some inherent engine heat applied to it?