It really bothered me. Every time I opened the hood of my project Integra, there it was, staring me in the face – the aged and faded valve cover. I decided to do something about it. As you can judge from the above picture, the result is pretty good. It’s actually much better than I anticipated. Hit the jump for the step-by-step of how I did it.
First, take some brake fluid and clean that mofo. Oil is the enemy of paint. Brake cleaner is the enemy of… well, everything. Brake cleaner is BFF with carb cleaner, my other fav cleaner, but don’t use that. Spray, wipe, spray, let it drip, spray some more. Brake cleaner is cheap. Use compressed air to dry the valve cover. Notice that much of the old paint has come off all by itself just by cleaning it. The paint that hasn’t come off, which is most of it, has to be physically removed. You can sand or carefully grind it off with a soft-ish wheel. Sorry, I don’t know the specifics of the wheel used here. Keep going. Remove as much of that paint as possible, preferably all. It’s important to remember, however, that this is a part of the engine on an old car and in my opinion does not need to be perfect, but it does need to look better. If it’s perfection you’re after, send your part for sand blasting and powder coating. Almost there. Getting to the hard to reach places with a grinder or ever sandpaper is…, well, hard. I didn’t sweat them because I wasn’t going for perfection, that paint was quite solid, and the valley in the valve cover where the spark plugs are is covered up anyway.
Now clean that biatch one more time. How you prep the painting surface often matters more than how you paint it.

Now, prep for paint some more. Here I placed the valve cover on some paint mixing sticks as opposed to a flat, possibly kind of dirty, surface. Elevating it will prevent it from sticking to the surface and possibly screwing up the edges. Also, cover up any threads and other parts you don’t want paint on. I used caps from WD40 spray cans which happened to perfectly fit into the spark plug openings. I didn’t cover up the letters, which I didn’t want painted, because I was afraid that removing the the tape later might mess up the paint around it. Instead, I removed the paint, as you will later see.
At this point Mr. Emslie suggested further cleaning with paint thinner or acetone should have been done, but I didn’t do that. 
Primer! There are some many DIYs on the internet about valve cover re-painting and so many of them forget this very important step. The paint will adhere better and last longer if you use a primer. Some will say that the primer paint won’t stand up to heat well, but I’ll take my chances. Make sure to shake the can well and put on a nice and even coat. Let dry for fifteen minutes.

Start painting!! Once again, nice and even strokes. As with painting everything, multiple thin layers are best. I chose a black high temp VHT paint with flat crinkle finish. This should make the valve cover looks like it did when the car was new. Please note that I resisted to paint the valve cover red, as in on the Integra Type R.
It looks shiny in between coats. With the paint still wet, I took a razor and carefully scrapped the paint off the letters that I did not want painted. In hindsight, I should have removed the primer paint before paining it black. And yes, I did screw up as you’ll see soon. Use a clean cloth to removed the scraped paint. One, freshly painted, Honda B18C valve cover. It’s best to let it dry in a clean, warm, place overnight, before handling. Some people say to put it into 200F oven for 10 minutes or so, to allow the paint to harden, but I believe that will happen by itself after the engine runs for more than ten minutes. Notice that I accidentally “cut” a little hole between the O and the H with the razor. That is really bothering me and I haven’t figured out a way to fix it yet. How it looked the next morning. The wet looking paint turned into a pretty crinkly finish. Here is an awkward picture of it on the engine, sans spark plug cover. While installing it I touched it front and center with my oily hands. I am hoping that this oil will come off with some soap and water. Maybe? Also, now that the valve cover is clean and pretty, the rest of the engine looks more dirty. Ugh.