ringo951

What a difference. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> PO neglected engine bay, slowly getting it back right. That was a job though. Here's some pics before and after.
<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/camold.JPG" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/intakeold.JPG" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/enginefront.JPG" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/engineside.JPG" alt=" - " />

nick951

very very nice. Good luck with it..

MySwiss

What did you use to polish it like that.

Dave E

Are those the stock i/c pipes?

Mike S

Kind of looks like the intake is painted and not polished..but its hard to tell.

Matt Sheppard

I'm pretty sure the intake is polished.

I just love how red powdercoated cam covers look in the engine bay with polished intake components. Best bang for the buck improvement out there. Really nice treatment and Kudo's, I aspire to have my mill THAT clean.

ELLSSUU

Dean, how many hours you got into cleaning/polishing. Just wandering if I need to take off a friday when the car comes back.

Ofcourse, it looks better in person. Also glad to see you got the short line ran.

GOBOGIE

I-chewowa! That looks nice!

OZ951

Excellent work Ringo. I am sure you'll get plenty of enjoyment just from staring at that lovely engine bay.

ringo951

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Dave E:
<strong>Are those the stock i/c pipes?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Yes, they are stock I/C pipes. Underneath that black paint and some elbow grease is nice shinny aluminum piping....

ringo951

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by Mike S:
<strong>Kind of looks like the intake is painted and not polished..but its hard to tell.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Intake is Polished.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by ELLSSUU:
<strong>Dean, how many hours you got into cleaning/polishing. Just wandering if I need to take off a friday when the car comes back.

Ofcourse, it looks better in person. Also glad to see you got the short line ran.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">You will need Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed off also. It takes forever!!!! I think I worked on it every day for a few hours for 3 weeks. Ask my wife she knows. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> The process Terry gave me did speed things up though. Yea, the short line was easy I already had extra hose left over from the smaller of the two long fuel lines. I just needed the end clamps. Finished product looks awesome. I should see you Sunday, might try to put the guages in with Terry.
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

MarkBytes

OK, call me naive, but I'm not following this thread. Is it possible to polish the cast intake, by hand, and get results like above? Trick? Tools?

silicondigital

Stock IC pipes are easy to polish up like that. Thats not black paint, its black anodized aluminum, much tougher. All you have to do is soak them in a strong mix of water and sodium hydroxide (lye) after you rough them up a little with some sand paper. Then use some metal polish and a rag. The same can be done for black anodized fuchs and cookie cutters too.

You could use the same method with the manifold if it is enough aluminum, to avoid a lot of polishing time.

ringo951

Ok, here it is. I tried every tool and abrasive wheel/disk I could find and everything took forever, until Terry helped me. This is what works. Use a air angle grinder with abrasive disks, made by 3M, some call them rotoloc. Any Autozone, Pepboys, etc. has them in the auto body repair section. Sears even has them. Get lots of coarse and fine. Then start with coarse and go to fine to remove all casting. When everything is nice and smooth go to wet/dry sand paper and water. I started with 320, then 600 and 1000. Sand away to get it real smooth. Then put a polishing wheel on the air grinder with red polishing compound, then white polishing compound, and finish it with Mothers aluminum polish. Time is the key, be patient, it takes forever. Good luck, and buy lots of beer.
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />