Here is what it looked like:

 

Here is the finished product:

 

Another shot:





I thought it came out fairly well. I wanted it to be a lot shinier. Anyone have any tips? I was thinking of picking up a jewlers cloth, and working on it for a while, trying to get the shine better.

I am planning on doing the same to my plenum now, takes forever, but it looks better than stock IMO.

I used:

Sandpaper:

120 grit
320 grit wet
400 grit wet

(all by hand)

Buffing wheel/compound on craftman 2300 rpm drill:

6 Inch Sisal W/ Emery compound
6 inch Yellow Treated Ventilated W/Tripoly compount (2x)
6 Inch Canton W/White Rogue compound

Just so everyone knows what I did.

 

Forgot the 3rd pic...

 

Lookin good!

 

Thanks!

I will look around for jewelry polish somewhere, or the like, and see if I can get it to brighten up just a little more.

All in all, I think it was worth the time. Hopefully my plenum isn't too much harder to do.

 

That looks good I see you are using sisal wheels, you should give them a shot as smoothing out the tpi lines or what ever they are called. Give the wheel lots of cuting compound.
It will take a while and you'll probally go thru a few wheels doing it but I think it looks 10x better with the lines polished out as well.

 

I would recommend to NOT use the jeweler's rouge compound. The reason you stop with the white rouge is because of the pores.

Even though you can't see them, there are tiny pores in the metal. When you finish with the white rouge, it fills these pores with the white compound, thus letting you NOT see them. If you finish with the jeweler's rouge, it will leave the red color in those pores making it have a red tint and also making it look cloudier......just a thought.

-Josh

 

ya what Josh said. The jewlers compound will only color it red. Trust me I made this mistake when doing my rims.

 

Thanks for letting me know that.

What about a simple treated jewlers cloth?

I ran over it with an old sock, but I think that just amused me more than anything else.

 

LoL :sillylol:

I believe that white rouge is the last step that you should take. There is no need to go any farther than white rouge. But you can if you want to.....I wouldn't recommend it though.

-Josh

 

Lol, amusing eh?

The last compound I ever use on a part, is the white rouge as well.