Cleaning Up The Engine Bay Questions

[davery]

I started cleaning up the engine bay a week ago and had a few questions. I removed a valve cover and wanted to paint them and the throttle body. I actually wanted to polish them, but after a few minutes of wet sanding I noticed several areas of pitting. I noticed a few pics in the forum where these are painted the same color as the car. Is this just regular body paint? I had a few rattle cans of the body color mixed up a few years ago and was wondering if I could use that? If not I will probably just go with crinkle black.

Next question. I have the radiator out and was wanting to paint the timing belt cover. Does a pulley have to be removed to remove the timing belt cover?

[AriK]

You should use a heat resistant paint for those covers. I got excellent results just sanding with rough paper 80 grit, going to less rough and eventually ending off with 1000 and polish. There's still minor pitting but in my opinion the chrome like finish beats any paint. Need much patience and time for that though.
I dont remember removing any pulleys for that belt cover, only the belts themselves and that water outlet at 12 o'clock for which you'll need a gasket.

[davery]

You should use a heat resistant paint for those covers. I got excellent results just sanding with rough paper 80 grit, going to less rough and eventually ending off with 1000 and polish. There's still minor pitting but in my opinion the chrome like finish beats any paint. Need much patience and time for that though.
I dont remember removing any pulleys for that belt cover, only the belts themselves and that water outlet at 12 o'clock for which you'll need a gasket.

This might be the time to remove the unused compressor and belt.