Homemade valve covers

[langy]

I've been looking for some valve covers for the Cadillac motor to clear my roller rockers, the only ones that do the job are the fabricated type, MTS Cadillac sell them but at $400 i thought they were a tad expensive

I was showing a mate a pic of them and moaning about how dear they were and he said make some, I thought about it and thought yes why not !!!

My mate folded the ally sheet for me at work so all i had to do was make up the fixing bolt sleeves and weld them together.

I was going to get another mate who is the best ally welder i've ever seen to do the welding as i very rarely do Aluminium so i'm not as good at it, anyway I was impatient and wanted to see them done so the Tig was sparked into life, for those that are interested i used a 2.4mm rod with a 2.4mm tungsten for the main part and a 1.6mm tungsten for around the bolt holes, It came out ok and better than i thought it might !!! They are going to be polished anyway.

I scored some original 60's Offenhauser NOS breathers off ebay US, there will be some people that think fabbed valve covers are not in keeping but I think thats the sort of thing they would of done if they couldn't get something way back then.

Offenhauser must of had funny rulers back in the day because the measurements ion the instructions are not the same as on the breathers

 

[Tigman]

Nice work Langy !

 

[rich74310]

They look amazing

 

[Shox Dr]

That's the down fall of been a perfectionist: Nothing is ever right, top work as per usual.

Since they going to be polished did you match the Stock with the rod, so there are no colour differences

 

[dickie bell]

nice job , could do with your press brake mine leaves awful marks on ally nowadays

 

[wyn]

Nice work.

How did you do the gasket face? Is it the sheet folded over or a seperate piece.

 

[Hitch]

nice job , could do with your press brake mine leaves awful marks on ally nowadays

Get some polyurethane bending film

 

[langy]

Nice work.

How did you do the gasket face? Is it the sheet folded over or a seperate piece.

Folded over Wyn, The main part is one piece and the ends are 2 seperate pieces.

 

[langy]

That's the down fall of been a perfectionist: Nothing is ever right, top work as per usual.

Since they going to be polished did you match the Stock with the rod, so there are no colour differences

Didn't think I would fall for that one did ya

 

[langy]

They look amazing

Cheers for the comment, I thought they looked ok but some of the weld beads ain't as tidy as they should be.
If I could have got them better I wouldn't sand the welds off.

 

[Windy Miller]

Cheers for the comment, I thought they looked ok but some of the weld beads ain't as tidy as they should be.
If I could have got them better I wouldn't sand the welds off.

Better? BETTER?????
If I could have got them half as good as that I'd have been chuffed!
Very nice job there Steve, and very nice to meet you the other day. Seeing your standard of work makes me want to try harder!

 

[langy]

Better? BETTER?????
If I could have got them half as good as that I'd have been chuffed!
Very nice job there Steve, and very nice to meet you the other day. Seeing your standard of work makes me want to try harder!

Cheers Andy, nice to meet you too. Had a chance to use it yet ???

 

[Windy Miller]

Cheers Andy, nice to meet you too. Had a chance to use it yet ???

Err no not yet - its still sat in the back of the truck actually. May well chop up some pipe with it tomorrow though!

 

[Seano]

Can totally respect your wish for 'Better' it drives my wife mental, but then that's how I was trained, for someone who hasn't tigged ally for a while I wouldn't class it as too shabby mate, have seen so called pro tig welders produce work of far inferior quality to yours Steve, will look great when all finished up.

 

[Mick70RR]

Nice work Steve, they look as good as any you can buy.