hockeydude

I'd been toying with the idea of getting some shiny polished intercooler pipes for some time now, but just can't make myself pay over $300 for something that wouldn't make my car any faster... so i did the next best thing!

After reading through a few archive posts here on rennlist, I picked up a spare set of stock intercooler pipes from Joel8005 and started my project today. I intended to do this project day-by-day this week, but once i got started i just did it all! haha

I documented my process below in case anone else wanted to see how the process goes.



I got a spare set of pipes so that i could work on these while at my apartment, since my car is still back in Granville.

I went to Walmart and purchased "Easy Off" heavy-duty Oven Cleaner. Really any product with Lye will work, but this stuff worked pretty well for me. I also purchased some latex gloves, scotch-brite pads, 150, 220,and 400 grit sandpapers , and a cheap storage-type container to do the process in as i didn't want to get any of the cleaner/Lye on my carpet or anything.

So i started off by taking the pipes and duct-taping the holes closed. This probably isn't necessary since you need to hose the pipes down thouroughly anyway, but whatever. Then i took 150 sandpaper and scratching up the pipes a bit. i did a small test of the oven cleaner and it just seemed to 'bite' into the areas which i had done this with. No need to go crazy here time ~ 3 mins

Next i put on gloves and bad clothing (that oven cleaner will eat through anything!) and put the pipes in the tub. I then shook up the oven cleaner a ton and doused the pipes. Some of it will run off into the tub, but that's okay. now you play the waiting game, about 10-15 minutess of them soaking. the spray foam will turn into goo during this phase. After experimenting i found that it really takes the whole 10-15 mins for it to eat away at the black coating. Just be sure not to leave these for too long (hours) or it will eat completely through the aluminum! ~ 15 mins/pipe

Anyway, then i went to town scrubbing the pipes with the scotch-brite pads. seemed to work really well. I then applied some more oven cleaner and repeated the process. ~75 mins/pipe

After all of the black anodizing is off (it was a $lut to get off of the welded areas) then i took them into the bathtub for a good cleaning. If I had a wife or mother around i probably would suggest doing this bit outside with the hose, but if not i wish you the best of luck! haha ~2 mins

After they were good and dry I first decided to go over them with progressive stages of sandpaper to make the pipes 100% smooth, but then i decided against. It would have taken me too much time, and frankly, my car isn't 100% flawless anyway.

So then on to the final stage! YAY! At this point the pipes are raw aluminum, and are non-mirror grey. I decided to go with a cheap Mother's Aluminum polish and terry cloths to give them a great shine, and my pipes came out great. If i would have had the resources i definetly would have used a bench grinder with buffing wheel, but i'm still happy wit the results, and my arms definetly felt the workout! haha

But anyway, it really only takes a small amount of polish to go a long way. After a minute or two of small concentric circles, the area turns black and you know that it's time to move on... after that I rubbed off the dried polish with a clean towel and Viola!

Now time for a drink! haha

Pic 1: Materials
Pic 2: sanded + Duct tape
Pic 3: Oven cleaner doing it's thing
Pic 4: After scrubbing the oven cleaner'black anodizing off. this is the raw aluminum
Pic 5: raw aluminum (bottom) vs. Quick polish (top)
pics 6 and 7 show the raw aluminum pipes and how it looks compared to stock
Pic 8: Black area is being polished
Pic 9: Finished product along with a much needed Dark N Stormy!

Joel8005

Good work......A dark and stormy always helps finish the job!!!

CyCloNe!

very nice, i think this should be in the DIY tutorials.

Fluidplay

Nice little bit of bling. Good work