Since I'm going through the trouble to do the head rebuild on my SIII, a lot of the intake and exhaust parts will be loose and easy to refinish if I get ambitious enough.

Most of these parts are tarnished and discolored and I'm not really sure what they looked like when they were new. Even the valve covers have taken a beating over the years.

Haven't seen too many pics of dressed up XK6 motors. Wonder if those on the board could post a few pics of any they have come across so I might get an idea what others have done and what the end result looks like.

I heard there was a service out there that restores the valve covers to original appearance but so far I have not come across this.

Also, I'm guessing that the surface of the aluminum head will look very nice after it has been cleaned up during the rebuild. Is there some clear coating that I can cover it with so that it stays looking that way or will any clear coat eventually go yellow and peel from the cycling heat or the engine?

Here's a pic I came across. Not sure what year this XK6 is but someone did a nice job on it.

 

Here are a couple pics of mine. With the exception of having the exhaust manifold shield ceramic coated and a new engine fan it was a matter of simply cleaning, painting, or polishing what was already there, re-wrapping wires, and the like.

No dress-up items added, if that's what you mean

Cheers
DD

 

Oh....new decals as well.

Cheers
DD

 

I didn't pull my engine and trans at this point but here's mine all shiny kleen. I glass bead blasted the aluminium parts and shot a clear on them. It looked ok, this time I'm going with powder coat and ceramics now that I have to rebuild the engine.

I had my shop powder coat the cam covers then machine a mm off the fins and it made them look factory fresh.

 

Doug: Looking pretty good under there. Did you paint a lot of the bronze parts silver? If so, what kind of paint did you use to hold up so well? What about the exposed aluminum on the head -- did you clear over it?

Napoleon: Good idea on the valve covers. Did you clear over the aluminum fins once they were machined or leave them exposed?

 

Napoleon Solo,

Looks great !

Cheers
Illya Kuryakin

 

It was years ago so my memory is a bit foggy.

I recall that the air injection and fuel rails, breather pipes, etc were all anodized when Jaguar built the cars. Since the finish was long gone I simply polished them with increasingly finer grades of steel wool and sandpaper. In the end they looked almost like chrome.

I remember polishing the cam cover ribs to a high gloss but I don't recall clear coating them. I might have, though.

A local paint shop mixed up a couple aerosol cans of Crimson Red so I could repaint the sides of the engine bay.

Cheers
DD

 

The cam covers I left as - is. Instead of going with the Jaguar sticker I had my guy laser etch the leaper on that spot, as well as on the K&N filter covers with the Jaguar text. I like things to look different but factory appearing...
I made my own wire guides and custom cut my plug wires so the leaper wasn't obscured.