Does anyone have pics of their polished tpi plenium that is refferred to in the Tech Articles? i want to try this endeavor but it sseems like a lengthy process.

 

Dood, I know your new.
So I'll go easy on you.

There is a search feature in the boards, that will gain you access to all the info you want on polishing plenum.

Try it out.

I'll even make it easy, here's the link <a href="search.php?s="><img src="images/top_search.gif" alt="Search" border="0"></a>

 

Here is my polished Plenum....

 

mine is in the sig. picture.

 

Here's mine. And, yes, it is a lengthy process. That's about 12 hours of manual labor there.

The HSR was a lot easier to polish.. hehe. Took me about 40 minutes to accomplish the same level of polish with a power sander.

 

HSR???

Oh and Kj Rock.... sorry man, yea i didnt know about the search thing. sorry. lately ive just been going through each individual forum and i didnt see any topics that matched what i was wondering. sorry. and i dont care what anyone else says. your avatar rules.

 

Not quit done yet......but will be next spring...
(1991 Z28 5.7 TPI L98)

 

HSR=Holley Stealth Ram.... a much better flowing form of fuel injection than TPI...

 

Tha's kewl dood.

I just wanted to let you know, before some others jumped on you.

Some of these questions get asked really alot, and others not so much. The worst you could do is post it, and no one answer you, right?

Have fun with the polishing... It sure makes it look way kewler.

 

In the tech article on the site it says you need 3M marine aluminum restorer (found at Advanced Auto/parts america)
I searched everywhere around my house without being able to find this stuff.... Is there anything else that works good to polish the plenum??

 

i don't have polished, but i will tell you that if you plan to powder coat or chrome plate anything polishing makes all the difference. most of this is ceramic coated; soon to be polished and chrome plated if i can't sell the pieces.

 

Kandied.......about your car... did it have the dual intake thing, and you just put a cold air induction on it or what. im really curious cause that looks really cool.

 

had the stock intake setup, i used a cover that is commonly found on the carbed models and custom fabed up a CAI (cold air induction)

thanks for the compliment!

aren't you in michigan, could have one built for you. i'm selling mine although i doubt you want to spend 200 bucks on an CAI even though it does work extremely well and makes the car sound like it's supercharged when it's running.

 

Here is mine:

 

i seriously wanna cry when i see these beautiful cars. a few things... i as well cant find this alum polish. any ideas where else to look. those runners are beautiful how much do they run like 300? and yea i live right in detroit.

SBrice...... wheres your MAF???? that look ssweet!

 

i'm looking for stock pieces that i can repolish and chrome plate instead of my ceramic coating....... if your interested in anything under my hood let me know. i've got about 800 into the coating; but i'd take around 1/4 of that if you had identical stock looking pieces to swap.

just a thought....


sbrice18fan; sharp looking bay, the headers are the only thing setting you back from being spectacular! looks good.

 

Thanks, Yeah I am not sure what to do to the headers, I can't really afford to buy another set of SLP's.

 

I'll tell you how I did mine...

Runners

- Hand sand them with wet sandpaper working from 180 grit up to 600 grit.

- I had access to a dual heavy duty buffer, mainly used for stainless, and this worked wonders. The compound were those brick type, where you put it on the buffing wheel, not the part.

- Did some final detail buffing with a rag and metal polish (autosol, mothers.. etc etc)

Plenum

- Took down the cast roughness with a D/A sander and 140 grit pads.

- Hand sanded with 180 wet up to 600.

- And buffed them like the runners

There was some tricky spots that I used a die grinder and dremel, with a buffing bit, to get at them.

And, here is the final product...

 

looks beautiful. so you can polish the runners too i assume? what exactly do you use to polish the aluminum you etc on that. ill buy the stuff tomorrow.

 

I had stuff I got from a car show... I forget what it is called... I've used the Mothers Aluminum Polish, and it works very good. I had the advantage of having access to the heavy duty buffing machine... it took out a lot of the sanding marks. So I recommend going up to a higher grit, like 1000.. this way you can polish them by hand after.

 

looks good, now you should do the condenser and the lines to match.......a few small but key peices and that bay would look sweet!

 

I was planning on doing a lot of stuff during the winter.. but my winter storage is no more

 

How many hours of work did it take to get the plenum and runners looking that good???

 

Took me round 10 - 12 hours total

 

thats not that bad...i'm gonna have to get around to doing that next spring...it really improves the look of the TPI....

 

yes.. and believe it or not, it is easier to clean because there's no roughness to them anymore