I repainted my engine cover the other night. I didn't mask the vvt-i and Toyota emblem on the cover the first time I painted, so it was all just one color, I wasn't really feeling that, so, I went to Home Depot and I picked up some foil ducting tape. This stuff is essentially sticky aluminum foil, really shiny and easy to work with. So I made overlays by laying a piece of the tape over the lettering and taking a razor to clean it up. I then threw another layer of clear down to make sure the tape wouldn't peel up. It's a black metallic with the silver lettering, I think it turned out decently, and the base coat give the cover a nice shine. Anyway, here it is:

 

Wow! that's a pretty good job.

 

I love the paint, but the foil, well it looks like foil.

 

Wow, nice job!! I think the foil looks awsome! It looks like brushed aluminum!!! Nice!!!!

~Stephanie

 

looks good, ya used just enough.....i've seen a few people ( won't say who ) around my area use that tape and put it from the ground up to the middle of the fenders, thinking it's some kind of 2 tone.....YUUUCCCCK, lol, some people go to far!

 

Thanks guys! In person, the foil has a pretty nice brushed finish to it.

 

It's different. I painted my cover gunmetal and instead of masking tape I covered my Toyota emblem and VVTI with vaseline so the paint would wipe off after it dried. Then clearcoated the whole thing.
If you want chrome coverlays I think bluebatmobile or Randode sells them ready to install.

 

I like the look, minus the silver foil...too much can be just that. Maybe if it were like carbon colored.

 

Hey guys, if he wouldn't have told you it was foil, you would think it was the coolest thing ever. Arien and I both think it looks awsome with the foil tape. It really does looked like brushed aluminum.

~Stephanie

 

IMHO, no. even if he didnt tell me it was foil, its abit to flashy, brushed or carbon would have done it fine. But to each is own. Im not saying he did a bad job, he's done more to his cover than I have mine.

 

My theory is that the exterior of my car is chrome free (my friends nicknamed it the ninja box) so I wanted something a little flashy for the engine bay. So yea, it was an experiment, and I'm happy enough with the way it turned out.

 

Good theory. Everyone has there own styles, thats what makes us Scion Family. All my shtuff is blue. Maybe not my engine cover, Im still not happy about the paint color to use. 1 of these days tho

 

Mine mostly looks like that, but I smoothed it first and I added a pearl clear coat over the metallic black and used randode overlays.

Now it's too nice to leave under the hood

 

Looks great! What color paint did you use?

 

It was a black metallic from Home Depot. It's not specifically designed for plastic, but I've used it a lot on different materials and it generally holds pretty well.

 

looks good. makes me want to paint mine now.