MichelleJD

but my intake looks better! ANy of you polishers have a better idea of where to go from here? Would sandpaper do a better job?

Serge944

Sandpaper always helps. Probably start with 400 and go up to 1000 grit. Then hit it with polishing compound.

Starting to come along Michelle!!

Jfrahm

Can of Krylon and an ice cold beer?

Sorry, couldn't resist :-) I'm just not the polished intake type.

-Joel.

horsepowerfarm

Michelle,

I would start with 220, still allot to knock down, then 400, 600 see how it looks if necessary hit it with 1000 before polishing. Serge has done this before maybe you could con him into showing you how to to do it so you could be a couple hours older drinking beer! Looks pretty bling

ELLSSUU

At Lawyer rates it's prolly cheaper to send it to Al Reed.

Geaux Tigers!

MichelleJD

I'm not a real lawyer, I'm a public defender. At the rate I'm paid I'm making money doing this!

Serge944

"My take-home pay won't even take me home."

Best bumper sticker ever.

ELLSSUU

I love it!

ELLSSUU

BTW, do you have a air compressor?

MichelleJD

No. Sears has one on sale right now that I'm considering, but my funds are pretty low right now. Having a second apt in Burma is not so great on the pocketbook!

Mike Murcia

I used a sanding disk attached to the drill to knock down the rough casting profile. Like this:


Having various sizes of disks will help get to the tough areas, but some places are only accessible with a dremel and a sanding drum like these:


In spite of the speed and ease of the power tools, there are some places that require hand sanding. I started with 150 grit and worked my way down to about 400 before I got tired. Wear gloves. Although you don't have to sand much by hand, my hands were sore and raw in a short time.

Instead of endlessly sanding with finer and finer grits, I used a bench grinder with a buffing wheel to speed up the process. This works very very very well. I started with a coarse cutting compound meant to polish stainless steel from Caswell Plating. It will give you a shine very quickly on the soft aluminum manifold. You can choose to go to finer compounds if you want, but I only followed up with an application of some Mothers mag wheel polish. If you do switch to a second compound, make sure you use a different buffing wheel.

Once you get the hang of polishing the aluminum bits, it's a snap. Good Luck!

CO944

Sandblaster works pretty good too.

MichelleJD

Thanx Mike. It doesn't have to be a mirror finish b/c I'm going to paint it. I just want a smooth surface to paint.

Mike Murcia

Aaah. Ok. A sanding disk with various grits should do the trick then.

daniel951

does anyone have the exact process and materials needed to polish things. i was thinking about sending it to someone to have it done but hey if i can do it myself why not. any idea on how long this process takes