Didn't struggle to make that title work at all. There's a joke in their somewhere... something something wrinkles, wrinkle paint.. whatever. It's there..
The point being; two-months-on, it's time to dive into a little more detail on an Instagram post from early January:
A new lease of life for an old Mazda B6/B6T cam cover. Stripped, painted, lettered and polished: a couple days work to wind back decades of wear&tear under the bonnet of a Capri. Worthwhile VHT wrinkle-paint practice...
A cam-cover to suit Mazda's "1600 DOHC 16-VALVE EGI TURBO WITH INTERCOOLER"...uh, little 1.6litre DOHC turbo four.
This particular piece may've come off an early 90's Capri; but its original home was the 1985- Mazda Familia (turbo variants) and Ford Laser TX3.. and conveniently, there happens to be a perfect example of the former available in Japan as we speak!
..for sale at Motor Spirits Alpha in Fukuoka for ~860,000yen; a 1985 BF Mazda Familia GT-X. A tidy example of a very rare car, that manages to look even more spectacularly original than it is clean..!
That engine-bay shows the finish I'd be going for, returning it to the wrinkle black, polished pads, and red lettering it had 30-odd years ago!
..SO.. old paint, new paint. Yep. Fairly sure you can fill in the blanks in-between?
Well, err.. you probably can.
Still, let's work through that process...
..with barely any of its original black paint left, and very scungy; grabbed this from the wreckers in the rain for the usual twenty cam-cover-dollars, including that slice of decades-old Autobarn seat cover to save the 4Runner's blue carpeting...!
All small pieces removed, then hit with an oven-cleaner and pressure washer to strip the oil/grease/gunk...
..done! nice and clean.
Scuffed up for the paint to stick, with the small patches of leftover black paint removed.
Masking, where the raised pads were conveniently the exact width of the roll of tape..!
The VHT Wrinkle Plus paint applied.
The two main points/tips in this would be to - one - do it on a warm day; and two, add enough coats of paint all-over for the wrinkling to work consistently. I felt like I'd added paint very close to the point of it starting to run...
Smooth and glossy, and out into the sun..!
..but uh, that's not right..?!
Nope, now we wait....
...and not all that long really! It'll wrinkle-up in front of your eyes..
Done. Left to dry thoroughly, as although it quickly looks dry, it really can't be touched without accidentally 'patting down' those wrinkles..
A couple days later, it was time to finish this off with some lettering/polishing;
The original green masking tape is removed; then simply hard-masked around those letters, and on goes some high-temp VHT red...
..uhh, perfect..?
The bulk of the excess red paint is easily shaved off with a razor-blade..
..then out comes the block and sandpapers to polish up the rest! Slowly working up to 2000grit here, to the finish it appeared to have had new: smooth and shiny, but no way a mirror..
..a quick polish, then wax&grease remover and a nailbrush to remove the mess out of the lettering..!
...aaaand we're done! Finished. Nice.
A bit of arts&crafts to keep me out of trouble.
