So these valve covers (Edelbrock elite) come stock with black painted valleys between the center slats. Along the perimeter are a series of "fake" black plastic Allen head bolts except 3 on top row are real. I plan to replace all those Allen bolts (real and fake) with stainless steel ones and fake ones will require drilling and tapping (whereas fake ones just pushed in like a plug). With stainless hardware, it will have a slightly different look.
But a thought came to mind. With Chevy engines being orange, I had this idea to paint the slat valleys orange to match the engine color, then sand off and repolish the cover including all the slat edges. I had to spray more paint than I wanted to because the paint mostly lands on the edges of the slats and not the valleys so in order to get coverage in the deep valleys, the slat edges have too much paint. It doesn't matter because the plan was to sand off the paint anyhow.
But now that I got started, the pre-sanded orange center is starting to grow on me. I realize that currently, the slat edges have too much paint but I can sand it off and repaint with a new thin coat.
So my question is this: which do you think looks more attractive and what should I do? Stick with original plan to sand off the slat edges and polish, or leave center section entirely orange including the slat edges? Neither valve cover has been polished yet so keep that in mind.
But a thought came to mind. With Chevy engines being orange, I had this idea to paint the slat valleys orange to match the engine color, then sand off and repolish the cover including all the slat edges. I had to spray more paint than I wanted to because the paint mostly lands on the edges of the slats and not the valleys so in order to get coverage in the deep valleys, the slat edges have too much paint. It doesn't matter because the plan was to sand off the paint anyhow.
But now that I got started, the pre-sanded orange center is starting to grow on me. I realize that currently, the slat edges have too much paint but I can sand it off and repaint with a new thin coat.
So my question is this: which do you think looks more attractive and what should I do? Stick with original plan to sand off the slat edges and polish, or leave center section entirely orange including the slat edges? Neither valve cover has been polished yet so keep that in mind.