Old Series I Valve Cover

[lonetreesteve]

Saw this on Ebay, starting bid seems to be pretty high. Just curious, what are these generally worth... this one looks to be in good condition:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4620633447&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

[sblake01]

I don't know but I've seen them fetch some pretty high prices. I have one here that I bought from the junkyard for 8 bucks about 10 years ago. (not for sale) I think the one that says "NISSAN" in block letters is even rarer at least in the US. That one on eBay is actually a little 'over restored'.

[Fun_in_my_z]

Looks a little over pollished

[george71z]

I thought the early oil cap had the 'elephant' logo on it. ??????????

[Arne]

Looks a little over pollished

Speaking of, what's the best way to bring back the factory look, and keep it looking that way too. I want mine to look right, but don't want to have to spend a lot of time keeping it looking good over time. After all, my goal is to use my car as a driver. Maybe not every day, but most of them at least.

[lonetreesteve]

The subject (below) doesn't look as polished as some that I've seen on Ebay..to me it just looks real clean and doesn't have that chrome-like shine to it.

[Arne]

Yeah, looks painted, or powder-coated maybe.

[EScanlon]

Guys:

To me that cover looks as if it's been either powder coated or painted silver. The letters are obviously painted.

E

[26th-Z]

The letters look either painted or polished. To get that uniform of a texture for the rest of the cover, it would either have to be painted, brand new, or blasted. Frankly, like all eBay pictures IMO, it's hard to tell what's up with the finish. I looks odd. That's all. If you paid the starting price and the shipping to America, it would be the all time record price for one of these that I have heard of. I have seen them go to $200 and believe that they are very popular in Japan. I think the most I ever paid for one was $25. The "OIL" cap as well as the "710" cap are correct for this valve cover. Watch out mixing caps and valve covers. The O-rings are different. Any used valve cover is going to show mechanics marks and scratches from use. They are cast aluminum and quite soft. They typically have odd casting marks and flash, and the aluminum is not uniform in color. The original grind marks from removing mold flash are rough. In other words, they were never uniform and perfect like you would get from a nice walnut shell blasting. Blasting your valve cover is not a good idea for your engine because dust gets inside the baffel. To properly clean a valve cover, take it down to your local machine shop and have them dip it. Tell them it's aluminum and they should know what to do. It will come back in a lovely natural buff. I polished the one in my avatar. Block sanded to get the casting ripples out the surfaces smooth. It's perfect and I'm going to paint it wrinkle black with polished lettering and accents.

[hls30.com]

Wot!

A non-factory finish for one of your cars? It does sound goodlooking though! Why did you polish it to put a wrinkle finish? The wrinkle paints are very forgiving to their surfaces.

I have two of these Valve covers, one to polish, and one to clean and leave alone.

Will

[26th-Z]

I got a little carried away. At first I was going to block sand the letters after painting, but it was suggested that the crap from block sanding would get in the wrinkles and never come out. Then it was suggested that powder coating would fill the imperfections, but powder coating can not be removed easily and I didn't want to completely ruin the valve cover. So I decided to sand out the imperfections and scratches, polish the letters before painting and either mask them or clean them off with lacquer thinner. Then I got carried away and polished the whole cover.

Yes, non-factory finish. Hey, my cars are restored! I get to dress up the gals in all sorts of various outfits!

[sakijo]

Here's mine. First I had it blasted and then painted it with "stone paint" It looks the non-skid sandpaper you put down on the floor.

Files didn't attach. Too big. Have to go and fix . . .