The tech articles say to wet sand at 1500 grit. while i did a search and some people recomend starting to wet sand at 200 while others are saying start at around 600-800.. Now i don't know anything about polishing metals, so im kinda clueless.. what exactly does wetsanding do for ya? as compared to dry sanding? also, the Tech Articles say to use Aluminum Restorer, and then an aluminum polish.. do i need to use an aluminum restorer? or can i just use some jewlers rouge after im done with 1500 wet sanding? i did a search but they don't really explain the steps though, and since i dont know anything about polishing. if someone could please explain the steps (besides just saying, sand using sand paper..) i would appreciate that alot.

thanks!!!

 

The way i did mine was i started at a dry 180 grit.....then did a 320 in wet....then did 400 in dry....then 800 in wet.....and then finished with 1500 and then 2 coats of mothers aluminum polish. I dont know excactly the steps to go by so i just went back and fourth. As far as what the wet sanding compaired to the dry does for you.......id say the only thing that i noticed was that the pits or craters or "rough" spots on the plenum and runners came off and were a little easier to sand down. I will say though that this is a real time consuming and labor intensive job. Took my almost all day to do the plenum to get it the way i wanted to and another full day to do the runners. Im doing my rims now as we speak and im going on the 2nd month on them and im almost done. Hope this helps you out somewhat.

 

got any pics of how your plenum came out looking after???

 

Hey Breathment. I would start off with around the 200-240 dry. This will knock of most of the heavys and the cast. I would then go on to a 320 dry, then 400 wet, 600 wet,800 wet , maybe even 1200wet, then 1500micro wet, adn finally a 2000 micro wet. add a hour of your favorite polish and WOW! I need sunglasses to look at that puppy.

By doing the extra stages you ensure no light scratches within all your hard work. It takes a little longer but the end result is priceless.

One other note. For your first part of sanding (the 200grit) you could use a orbital or a flat line sander to increase removel from the casting. But I would only to the initial sanding with power tool, the rest is finesse work. You still need to be gentle when using the air tools though.
Just my .02 that turned out to be more like .15



HTH

Keiran

 

Ill post some pics as soon as i get a chance to get outiside and shoot some. Right now my car is under about 7 inches or so of snow....so i got to clear her all off. Ill see if i cant take some before this weekend.