[YNOBIL]

Keith Seymore just told me about this thread. When my new '72 GTO was new I took off the painted valve covers and put on a chrome pair from a '67 GTO. I put the factory covers in my basement in a bag. So in 2006 they were still in mint condition. I was painting my engine before entering it in Concours Judging at the '06 GTOAA Convention. I took one of the covers to my friend at the CarQuest Auto Parts paint dept. and he custom mixed the engine paint using my sample. I searched everywhere for a set of used valve covers so I could keep the originals for future comparisons. Well it got to be 4 days till the convention and I couldn't find a decent set of replacement covers anyplace. Sadly I ended up putting the original covers on my engine and then painting them. Here's my oil filler cap that was painted with my custom mixed paint. I know pictures don't always give true color but mine seems to be a little different from all the samples shown in this thread. When I paint an engine I first paint the hot exhaust areas with New Cast Grey Hi-Temp paint and then paint the engine color. That way when the color burns off you have grey metal instead of rust.