I finally got around to 'really' polishing my TPI. I did the passenger side runners today, and hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more time to do the driver side.

Also took some pics of the rear tires. My trunk was severly crooked because I didn't latch it down all the way :hail:

Oh well, take it for what it is though!

Heres what the unpolished side of my runners looked like..

 

Here is the polished side...

 

Heres a shot of the rear...

 

Close up...

 

Nice ride, now you need to do the valve covers.

 

Neverrrr, the valve covers were harder to replace than installing my headers.

 

I love your vert :hail: , but honestly the polishing isnt that great. What steps did you use to polish? Just by looking at whats polished, did you leave the plenum and runners on the motor while you polished? Its much eaiser when you have the parts removed to polish, and your back wont hurt as well.

 

They are on the car....but I only did the back runner tubes (2 closest to the firewall), I started with 36 grit to really chew into them, then I used 80 and progressed to 130 or something.

Tomorrow I'll start the whole process over if I can, and finish off with 200+ grit and see how it comes out. That was only about 20 minutes of 'scrubbin.

 

I'd go up to 400 grit and then use some eagle 1 alluminum polish to get the shine.

 

I went from 80 grit to 2000 on mine..they came out pretty nice..but...there are quit a few ways you could go about doing this.....

 

By the way, I love the car man....!

 

maybe its just the picture, but it could be even more shiny

 

haha..ur right...I did that by hand....I did it all on the car...so..it was kind of hard to do. I'm going to buy a buffing wheel from Sears and use a drill. Also going to get some different compounds to bring out the true beauty....

 

I was just messin with ya man, thats prolly one of the best polishing jobs ive seen. Ide love to see what it looks like when you use the buffing wheel!

 

ohhhh!....*swoosh*....haha..well thanks man...not to bad for it being on the car. I'll make sure to post some pictures of it after it's buffed with a machine

 

Ever heard of pig snot? I think it would be perfect for keeping the shine of the runners on the tpi. My dad bought some for his harley for polishing the spokes on his wheels and it worked great. I used it to polish the tips on the borla exhaust on my LS1 too. Came out great. It comes with a special cloth that has the "pig snot" on it and you wrap it around round things and just go back and forth. Does a great job. Just a suggestion.

 

Very nice car Dan...What muffler/tips do you have? I love the tips they look badass.

 

Thanks Mike. I wish I had a badass motor like you do lol.

The tips on my car are the ones that came with my Thunderjet exhaust. They downturn slightly 4-5 inches before the meet the bumper.

 

I thought I'd mention also...I did all that polishing with ONLY sanding blocks, I don't have any regular sand paper at the momeny

 

It looks like you're off to a good start. Getting that mirror finish really takes a lot of time, but I really think the results are worth it. Here's a pic I snapped last year. I still plan to spend more time on the plenum and runners.

 

Daaamn Jim...lol


I really want to see that car upclose. Yeah, considering I only polished with sanding blocks...tomorrow I'll pick up some sanding paper and start over and hopefully get a nice mirror finish too.

Making quite a bit more money this year, than I was last year. So my cars driveability (most important) has GREATLY improved and so hasn't the appearance. Someday I hope to have a beast of a motor that you have. I could afford to have a nice 350 built, but I can't afford all the extra costs for labor

 

nice car man.. the polishing could be better. try the compounds. thetre not available where i live so i did it the all the way to 1500 way on my rims. jim those headers look outta place on that bad motor of urs

 

doh..I just noticed the exhaust was mentioned in your signature. Where did you get it? I was thinking of going with some LT1 tips. Maybe not...

Jim...I really like that shot of your motor. TPI has to be one of the hottest looking designs to come out of detroit. I love the way polished aluminum looks.

Heres a shot of my plenum.

 

wow, that looks real good man, nice polishing job!

 

Tell me about it. They are an even bigger eye sore in person. I don't know if a nice set of coated headers is in this year's budget, but if not this year then definately next year.

 

Yeah they'll finish it off Very nicely. Nice polish jpb on the Plenum

 

Mike, it's a thunderjet exhaust I got from a local shop. I'm sure they can get ahold of another one for you if you'd like. OR, I could go snap some pics of the tail pipes and you could have them custom bent?

 

I got around to some more polishing, I spent another 30-45 minutes sanding with 140 grit? Then I decided to jump up to 400 & 800 just to give it a 'decent' shine just so I could snap a pic and show some of the progress I've made. I don't have time or the healthy knee's to hold myself up that long to polish everying now.

I scuffed up the runners, and all I 'finished' was the left side of the TPI. I'm getting there, just give it some time

Give me another week or two and it'll be looking much better.

 

Holy **** Jim , that engine bay is beautiful .. the perfectly polished plenum up against those bad *** valve covers, not to much polishing its just the perfect amount. Its even in a flat black engine bay, you have one nice *** car man.

 

great job!

 

damn jim VERY nice job...

for those of you who took off your plenums & runners..is it a bitch to take off and put back on?

 

I did the plenum by hand and with a hand sander on the flat areas. IM gonna do the runners next to get a break from polishing my wheels.

Dan thats looking better all the time! I know what you mean about the sore knees. IM not as young as I used to be and my back isnt as strong as it once was either. Try Sanding it up too 1500-2000 grit then polish it with Blue magic or one of the other polishes. Its the polish that really brings out the color and shine. If you are still in the sanding proccess your gonna be grinning from ear to ear when you hit it with the polish for the first time.

Ive never heard of that brand of exhaust. Is there a website I could see it at? If you dont mind I would like to see some close up shots of the way the tips are designed. IM happy with my exhaust except for the tips.

What size tires do you have on the back?

I have 255s...they fit good on the rear.

 

I have 255's on the rears, to be exact - they are BFGoodrich Comp T/A Drag Radials.

Here's a pic of one of the pipes.

 

anyone?

 

Yes, it can be a bitch to get them off. I'd give it your best shot to do them on the car.

 

it is a bitch to het the runners off. plenum was 15 min. runners suck cuz you have to loosen the fuel rails so you can get the flange of the runners past the rail. i worked at it for 2 hours trying to get them off before i gave up and put everything back together.

i couldnt get my fuel rail bolt loose, i broke 2 torx bit sockets and stripped out the torx bolt They are damn tight just like my sig says about GM...

 

Depends what you compare it to. Back when I had stock stuff it was pretty easy to get them off. Yank the plenum, unbolt the runners and take them off. It took under an hour.

Now it's not so easy with all of my aftermarket stuff. I have to pull my valve covers to get to the lower bolts, and to pull the valve covers, I have to pull my alternator. Once that crap is out of the way, I can unbolt the runners, but I've got to unbolt the fuel rail and lift it up to get the driver side runner out. Now it takes me a couple hours or more.

 

i just pulled off my plenum for the first time today to give it some sanding. wow, lol its a much bigger job than i thought...but it's do-able. just need some time on my hands. one question though, after i did some sanding, i put it back together, but now all the cables on the TB are pretty slack. how can i tighten them up?

 

All those are looking good.

 

Jim85Iroc, very nice polishing job. Did you polish the waterneck or did you buy it nice and shiny. If you bought it, let me know where.

Thanks