I have no luck getting crackle paint to crackle, every time I spray it the paint ends up smooth as silk and I'm following directions to the letter.

Anyone have good results with this stuff?

I've always had good results. Needs to be in a warm space and the coats have to be quite heavy.

Did you shake the can well?

Shook the crap out of it and painted it in my basement at like 65 degrees

You need to stick a heat gun or hairdryer on it after each coat.

I can try that

I did mine on a 90+ day in the sun and it still didn't come to life until I busted out the hair dryer. I put on two decent coats and warmed it up after each one.

FYI even though the top surface may feel hard it can still be plenty soft underneath. In those temps I'd plan on letting it sit for a few days before handling it too much.

I just put it in the oven at 200 and its starting to crackle

Thanks for the replys last night! It was a duh moment, I put painted part (air cleaner lid) in the oven for like 10 minutes at 200 and it turned out great.

Yep, heat is the cure (pun intended!)
A safer method than an oven is the halogen shop lights.

I used a BBQ as my family would not let me put some valve covers in the oven. Still turned out nice!

I painted a set of valve covers on a cool day last fall. I could tell that the paint was not going to cure properly so I looked around to find a spot that had the most direct sunlight. I got a ladder out and put them up on the roof of the house. I would go up occasioanlly and re-position them so all areas of the valve covers would cure evenly. It worked!


Stan

I got my air cleaner powder-coated in wrinkle-black and it came out great.

Rustoleum Black Textured S/G. No curing:

I used Harley Wrinkle Paint, worked great and looks stock.

I think I have pictures around here somewhere of the set I did.