Painting Engine Cover

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

Hi guys.I have now sprayed my engine cover and thought i'd do a little write-up about it to share some knowledge in a step by step guide so you can have a gander and maybe get some inspiration if your looking to do this yourself.

Right!

Well first up obviously go to your car, lift the bonnet and remove your engine cover.On the a3 1.8t there is 4 screws located at the top just pop these out and your done!

Before cleaning/degreasing your cover make sure you remove the 4 screws and also the rubber grommets from the cover (use a small flat tool to pop these out) to get right in the nooks and crannies.

Clean your cover with a SUITABLE degreaser.Obviously no strong acids as the plastic WILL melt, a motor oil/mechanics degreaser or white sprit/turps is fine, it's only to remove the strong bedded in oils and stains.Rinse off and allow to dry.

Once that is done, i used a regular (not too abrasive) sandpaper to rough over the cover and remove some of the grain pattern.

And you end up with something like this

Next i rubbed over the cover a few times with 240 grade wet and dry paper with soapy water (cleans the surface aswell as lubricating the paper) to take out the rough spots left by the sandpaper just to allow a smoother surface.Rinsed off with clean water and allowed to dry.

Once dry I then wiped the cover over with pre-paint to get rid of any residue left by the sanding process.

Then mist a coat of filler primer over the cover to fill in any grained pattern and allow to dry for a few minutes, then apply a second coat.
1st coat

2nd coat

dried before being wet sanded

Right,well after allowing to dry for a couple of hours i then used the same 240 grade wet and dry paper with some soapy water and gently smoothed the cover over.

Then i set about masking up my spray area in my dads shed lol so wherever your spraying obviously mask up everywhere as you don't want paint all over the shop!

Once your set up use some more pre paint with a clean cloth and wipe the area to remove any dust.

Then place your cover in your spray area and apply 2-3 coats of normal primer.I used white primer, as the colour i chose to spray my cover with was the metallic blue that my car is painted so it'll make it "pop" more.Like for like if you choose a dark colour use a dark primer,light colour light primer.

Left out in the sun to bake hard for an hour

Then i wet sanded the cover with some lighter grade 600 wet and dry paper with the soapy water and left to dry.

I then applied a mist coat of colour before applying the second coat around 10 minutes later.Left to dry

Again i used some lighter grade 800 wet and dry paper to remove any unsmooth paint.left to dry

Wipe over the cover with pre paint and wait a few minutes to dry.

I then sprayed on another 2 heavy coats of colour this time allowing around 15 minutes between coats to get a good coverage.Left to dry.

Wet sanded and left to dry again before wiping over with pre-paint.

I then sprayed on 3 coats of clear laquer allowing 10 minutes between coats and left to dry for 24 hours.

At the end you will end up with something that looks like this

Originally after spraying the colour i was going to mask up the audi rings and the 5v turbo emblems and spray them in silver or white but after spraying over with the blue i really loved the "stealth" look of it so i'm keeping it like this

I hope you enjoyed reading this and hopefully i have given you all some ideas!
Thanks for looking,if you have any questions just pm me and i'll be glad to help:thumbsup:

 

[emery1990]

looking good. ill do mine soon i think! how much did it all cost (around)

 

[voorhees]

thanks for sharing
the last three pics are not as good as the rest,did you run out of film for the camera

 

[wnjuk]

Excellent write up :icon_thumright:

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

looking good. ill do mine soon i think! how much did it all cost (around)

roughly around £40-45 for filler primer,primer,2 custom body colour match spray cans, can of clear and a few sheets of sandpaper,i only done it for something to do really lol but glad i did now

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

thanks for sharing
the last three pics are not as good as the rest,did you run out of film for the camera

lol they was all taken on my mobile believe it or not,i'm in the market for a new digital cam soon so once it's back in the bay i'll get some really nice shots of it

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

Excellent write up :icon_thumright:

cheers fella!

 

[IIIadidasboy]

Great finish - I haven't got the patience to go through all those steps - well done!!!

 

[A3Tom]

Good work there, looks like a proper job.

Tempted to do mine in Gloss black now...might be a job for rest days next week.

 

[fingermouse]

whats wrong with the std black nice and clean ????

nice job but not for me ......

 

[RichA3Turbo]

i say ditch the engine covers completely and paint/power coat the inlet manifold and rocher cover and get some nice clean new stainless nuts and bolts...mkaes it look like an actual engine and not a bay of plastic.

Good job on the cover though... looks like you got a really good finish. There is really no other way to do it than to spend alot of time with alot of coats. good job

 

[Bignick]

Nice job and excellent write up, you could do your rings with a silver pen, but that would seem a bit cheap after all your effort.

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

thanks for the comments lads.i really only done it because i had a few days off work and i was kinda bored waiting for my suspension to turn up lol.
will definantly be considering painting the inlet manifold,and other bits and pieces in the future with all new nuts 'n' bolts to freshen the engine up

 

[A3Tom]

I'm in the process of doing mine at the moment....lots of waiting around between coats and lots of flatting

I'm going for gloss black on mine to keep the OEM look but making it a bit more tidy at the same time

T

 

[ghost.s3]

Nice job dude - looks great :thumbsup:. Wish I had the patience to complete a job like that. Would be great to see it once it's been put back in the bay.

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

I'm in the process of doing mine at the moment....lots of waiting around between coats and lots of flatting

T

it's all worth the effort though

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

Nice job dude - looks great :thumbsup:. Wish I had the patience to complete a job like that. Would be great to see it once it's been put back in the bay.

once i get a bit of time and remember to do it i'll take some pics
will 90% be at audi's in the park too so no doubt they'll be pics of it somewhere,that's if i get the nail polish on the paint sorted out

 

[Nilz]

Excellent write up dude and looks like a top job...

Well done mate.

Tom, get some pics up when you have done yours too mate

 

[A3Tom]

Tom, get some pics up when you have done yours too mate

I will do mate.

I've sanded, filled, sanded, primed, sanded, primed, painted, flatted, painted, flatted, cleared, flatted and cleared again and now I'm painting the Audi rings and writing before I give it another flat back and a couple more coats of clear. I wouldnt have bothered putting clear on before painting the details as I was going to leave it totally black....BUT I changed my mind as it made the engine bay look really dark.

Its not totally smooth but its certainly looking a lot better than it did when it was stock....nice, clean and glossy. I've also done the small perforated one that sits at the front of the engine where the dipstick goes through.

On another note Nilz, your mate that came to Cov with us that night....does he work at Halfords?. When I was picking up my paints etc I'm sure I saw him hanging out of a Saab fitting something in the carpark.

T

 

[S3 Rav]

tom mate when were you in cov?

 

[A3Tom]

tom mate when were you in cov?

Must have been about 5 weeks ago now I think, maybe longer. I popped over with Nilz one Wednesday night for the meet by the Ricoh.

T

 

[A3Tom]

Here's now it is so far (excuse the state of it, covered in dust and fingerprints!)

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

looks good tom, well done fella!

 

[A3Tom]

Its a right ba$tard doing the details on it though.....wish I hadnt bothered now!.

The silvers alright but the reds a right ****** to get smooth so I'm just putting loads of coats on so I've got enough paint on there to flat it down when its gone fully hard.....MISSION!.

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

Its a right ba$tard doing the details on it though.....wish I hadnt bothered now!.

The silvers alright but the reds a right ****** to get smooth so I'm just putting loads of coats on so I've got enough paint on there to flat it down when its gone fully hard.....MISSION!.

that's kind of why i didn't bother doing mine, plus i like the stealthy look mine has with the emblems the same colour, plus i think i'll be throwing it out of the bay in the future to paint the rocker covers
have fun with yours, takes ages i know lol

 

[Nilz]

Yo that looks good dude!!

Yea thats my cousin, he works there, is one of the audio specialists there.

 

[A3Tom]

Yo that looks good dude!!

Cheers!, I just want to get it back on the car now as I'm fed up of doing it!

Yea thats my cousin, he works there, is one of the audio specialists there.

I thought it was him, he was under a gazeebo in the carpark buried in the footwell of a horrid turquoise Saab .

 

[Nilz]

Cool, so as soon as you have done that, and have done such a good job of it, just let me know when I can drop mine over to you

Yea he has his head under all sorts of cars that come into there....lol.

 

[A3Tom]

Well I've flatted everything back so its super smooth now so just need to lob a couple of coats of clear on it in the morning.

Its taken an age so I wont be doing any more!!!!

T

 

[IIIadidasboy]

Boys - we still need pics of them back in the bay!!!

 

[A3Tom]

Boys - we still need pics of them back in the bay!!!

Just got to put another coat of clear on it and give it a polish

 

[ROLTYA3TURBO]

finally got round to putting my cover back on the engine so took some pics of it earlier as i was taking some shots of the car in this lovely weather we have today!