Hopefully there will be 2 more in Aus soon. if 1200GX can find them for me.

Here is one in a KB10 belonging to one of our members. I believe it was photographed at the Nationals.

If the owner wishes to be identified, he can make himself known & thanks to Benny for the picture.
Coming from a front drive car, I'm guessing that the air cleaner was a bit cramped for room, so the slope on the side of these covers was probably to provide clearance for it.

Clearly these have shown up in Australia, so I am surprised that there are not more of them around on our beloved Datsuns.

































This is 1200GXmans new cover.
Interestingly, all three of these covers in this thread are on twin carb engines, but only 1 is on a street car.

i'd just have it chromed so that it'd be brighter and easier to clean up than polished alloy

Here is how ive polished my old L series rocker cover and all my alloy wheels(including the watanabes so check my galley for results).

Degrease the alloy
If its pretty ratty, use 800 wet and dry sandpaper(plenty of water)
Then 1200 wet and dry sandpaper (or if its not so bad jump straight to 1200grit). still lots of water.
If you wanna go crazy use 2000 after... but i never have.
Then get yourself a air compressor and a 'whizzy gun' or 'gasket scraper' or something like that.Something that spins fast and you can get a nice small felt pad for.
Apply autosol/other good metal polisher(dont need to use heaps) and spread over all of the alloy.
Attack it with the felt pad on the whizzy gun at full RPM.

Brings it up beautifully! Doesnt take long either!

Thanks guys.
I always wonder what I would have done if I never discovered this site with all the good friends on it.
Will give it a go this weekend and post a pic of it fitted to the engine.
Cheers

Why not just buy a 20 litre tub of aluminium cleaner. Soak the cover in it overnight. In the morning the cover will be a dark grey brown colour. Chuck it in a bucket of water and scrub it and underneath will be nice clean aluminium. If it still has stains, just soak it again and then scrub it again.
Then once you have a nice clean cover you can decide if you want it shiny or not. And then proceed to sand and polish it smooth.

Regarding polishing alloy I'd definately recommend using Autosol metal polish....It's cheap and works wonders. But preperation needs to be done first like removing the built up grease and grime. Once thats been removed, Hit it with steel wool. Once it's all nice and clean it will be ready for the Autosol polish.
Try it and see....You won't be dissapointed.

Quote:To remove the grunge, use some engine cleaner as you have intended. Once that is off, then, as has already been suggested, use a good mag wheel cleaner & a stiff bristle brush.

You could also use a fine grade of steel wool that is heavily impregnated with soap. Place the rocker cover on a washtub with some nice warm water [about 1/3rd full] & see if you can brighten up the whole thing.

As for your 100Kpa WAP machine, I think it should be junked. 100 Kilopascals is only 14.5psi. Hell mate, two cups of coffee & a half hour wait, & I could pi$$ on it with more pressure than that.
I can guarantee that this pressure will not damage the alloy.

Once you have removed all of the dirt, & this might take a few applications of mag cleaner & steel wool, then have a go with a metal polish. There must be several brands around, but read the label to be sure that it is OK on aluminium.

Knock yourself out & it will come up better than new.

Aluminium must breathe???? It's not leather or red wine, it's aluminium, ...... a metal.
I think that you listen to too many ignorant people & do not apply enough of your own good sense. If it 'breathes' then it is porous. If it's porous, then it leaks oil through the material it is made from & that would defeat the very purpose of it's existence.

No my friend, the alloy rocker cover should not 'breathe' & a quality metal polish will impart a layer of protective wax to help seal the surface & prevent it from tarnishing & oxidising.

Quote:
Sorry, what do you mean?

Quote:
Well, I tought I would have difficulty finding one, but when I phoned a mechanic friend he said there is one at the scrapyard across him. Upon walking in there was a 1400 pulsar engine also standing on the ground with one fitted. Reasonably available here in South Africa. Try and look around there in Aus. They look quite nice. The tin one always looked crappy to me so I sprayed mine the same as my car's color.

Damn, what to do with the 8 spare elephant stickers I made for the oil cap.

going by the raised letter is be saying its alloy....how common are these things?