DR

Hi Lex,

>The supercharger case and some of the other parts in the pictures are obviously chromed.

Nope, those are all hand polished.

SharkSkin

Randy's intake on the cab he sold recently were jet-hot coated, not chromed. If you ask him real nice, he may post a pic -- IMHO it looked spectacular.

RDS928S

Airosey,
Powder coat them in silver like this:

928ntslow

Or you can powder coat them chrome...these are on my 82. They look more like an aluminum finish.

airosey

Keith, those look awesome! I would be very happy with mine looking like that. Was the color actually called chrome? Could you post a pic of the engine bay of your 82.
Thanks,
Chris

FlyingDog

Keith, are those a very shiny sparkley metallic or are they smooth and shiny like real chrome?

928ntslow

Smooth and shiney, even though I had them painted some kind of chrome by name, they do not shine like real chrome. They do look like polished aluminum ...kinda. You can see the reflection in the close up.

airosey

Wow Keith! I envy you, haha. I don't know how you do it with the 82 AND the GTS. I remember seeing pics of your car a while back (I remember from the painted headlight rings and trim), and just thought how clean it looked. Did you have the thermostat housing, strut bar, various brackets,etc coated also? The only thing I see polished is the top of the radiator. I really like your intake tubes also! Mine are completely shot, so I am running without any. Thanks alot for posting the pics!
Chris

FlyingDog

Chris, running with bad intake tubes is better than running with none. There have been some threads about alternate tubes. WDS928 and Alan have posted a couple sources of tubing.

airosey

Thanks matt, I'll do some searching. Luckily my car is garaged doing the tb/wp, so it hasn't been an issue for not. I hope maybe keith will tell me where he got his from. They look like they are of good quality.

AO

I polished my runners on my old 82. A LOT of work, but good results. I just used some Eagle1 "Never Dull" wadding polish on them every few months, and it kept them looking very nice. I bought some high-temp clear gloss engine enamel witht he intention of sprying the runners to keep them "polished" but never had the nerve to try it out of fear of yellowing, flaking etc.

Here's what it looked like.

928ntslow

The intake runners and throttle body are Euro. When I bought them. I sent the runners to the powder coater. They then sat in my garage for about a year until I finally had/took the time to yank the old US intake stuff off. This was after I shredded a timing belt. Replacing the belt, gave me access and all kinds of time to seriously clean the engine and engine bay. I even had enough room to comfortably install the MSDS headers. I did some painting here and there, but mostly cleaning. I did make several fixes to harness plugs and replacing lots of rubber. After all of that, I threw on the new intake system. The only thing that is powder coated on this car is the intake runner and plenum. I polishjed the other stuff that looks shiney. I get asked A LOT about the intake tubes. The aluminum "cuffs" are made from flat stock from Home Depot and the ventilation hoses are from a place out here called HOSE MAN. I am sure you can get this stuff at any industrial hose supply warehouse. The hose cost about $20.00 for a 6 foot length. I then cut to fit. Cleaning the engine took a lot of time, but the efforts are worth it.

bcdavis

I warn you...

They are a pain in the *** to keep shiny.

928ntslow

Thats why they need to be sealed as soon as they are polished. It's about as close to chrome as you are going to get.

airosey

Thanks for the pic bcdavis!

Andrew, thanks for the pic also! I think I'm going to try coating them with the clear and see what happens. I figure its worth a try.

Thanks once again keith! I'm in the same position that you were in. My waterpump was leaking badly, so I recently decided to dive in and get it all done. I pulled everything off of the top of the engine. I've replaced every piece of rubber I can see, and put black wire loom on all of the wiring. I've cleaned and cleaned again (lots of grease and gunk on the front of the engine). I've been working on polishing the little stuff at the moment, and been debating on the runners (polish or powder). I'm going to go ahead and grind the large casting marks on top of the tubes. I should have had the tb done by now, but I can't get the oil pump out! I keep having nightmares at night about it leaking because I decided to skip. I'm def going to have to contact hose man and get ahold of that tubing, I really like the way it looks. Anyway, I'm just slowing taking my time and doing everything right. Thanks!
Chris