Originally posted by mitsurugi
What is the Viton gasket, is that the stock one? Also, my car has 80k on it, so I'm just going to replace it anyway to be safe.
Good move. Replace it. It's almost 10 years old, right? You'll probably need it. Viton is a rubber compound that is resistant to most petroleum products that you find in a car. It still breaks down over time, but it lasts longer than rubber. You don't really need to know anything about it except if you ever see anything that says Viton®, that's what it's made out of.
Originally posted by mitsurugi
How long do you think it would usually take to polish the valve cover.
About a week if you spend 4-5 hours a day on it.
Originally posted by mitsurugi
I'm assuming I start with low grit, then work up to high grit, then hit the polishing wheels? Also, I think that my valve cover is just the bare aluminum. Here is a pic
You're lucky. Yours IS the bare aluminum. You should still clean the outside of it with brake cleaner because I think Honda clear coated the bare ones, and that will gum up your sandpaper if you wet sand it. Brake cleaner takes it off. Don't use wire wheels or anything like that to strip it because you'll be trying to sand out the scratches from it for days. Use non abbraisive strippers to remove the clearcoat and you'll save yourself a lot of work later.
Start with 220 until you've stripped EVERYTHING that you don't want showing on the finish. Then use 320, 400, 600, and finally 800 before polishing. You want to spend at least 4 hours with each grit, or until imperfections are gone. You also want to sand in the same direction once you're finished with 220grit. The polishing wheels won't remove ANY scratches, chips or pits in the finish, that's up to you and however much time you spend sanding.