OK ... so I bought an aluminum plenum extension to replace my plastic one as my first polishing project.

It is coming out pretty good, but not nearly as good as I had hoped. It is shiny, but you can still see some tiny scratches in the metal that give it an overall "cloudy" look.

Here are the steps I took (I combined the tips from MikeinAZ and the ones found on the tech articles page on TGO):

- Sanded the cast down with 180 until there were no more pores in the metal (this took about 3 hours)

- Sanded with 320 dry for about 30 minutes

- Sanded with 320 wet for about 30 minutes

- Sanded with 400 dry for about 15 minutes

- Sanded with 400 wet for about 15 minutes

- Buffed with emery and medium sewn wheel for about 15 minutes

- Polished with Mother's

**At this point it was not near as shiny as I'd hoped, so ...

- Rubbed with 00 steel wool dry for about 15 minutes

- Rubbed with 0000 steel wool dry for about 10 minutes

- Rubbed with 0000 steel wool wet for about 15 minutes

- Polished again with Mother's.


This thing IS shining, but it is not "mirror-like" ... any advice?

***edit*** I just went out and bought some more buffing compound. I bought some tripoli and some white rouge and another medium sewn buffing wheel. Now I have three compounds, two medium wheels and one soft wheel. My plan is to go back over it with the emery on a medium wheel, then hit it with the tripoli on another medium wheel, then hit it with the white rouge on the soft wheel ... does this sound like the right thing to do, or should I just wet-sand with 1200 or 1500 and hope for the best?

 

Nevermind ... obviously you guys don't give a crap about my problems!!

JK

I buffed with emery, then tripoli, then white rouge & am very happy with the results, although I couldn't tell ANY difference between the buffing with tripoli and white rouge, so I think I'll just stop after the tripoli for the rest of my projects.

 

um... pics?

 

yes the tripoli takes out those fine scratches, it works good, i used that and the white rouge i hardly noticed any difference between them, i also sprayed my entire tpi setup with eastwoods diamond clear, it made it a little cloudy but all i have to do is wipe the dust off of it.

 

According to what I have read, wiping the dust off with windex or something should be all I have to do even if I don't clear it ... so, in your experience, do you recommend the diamond clear, or should I just leave it alone?

 

there are a lot of nooks and crannies in the runners and plenum to clean, it would be personal preference. if i had to do it again i'd still probably use the diamond clear

 

I've got pics now!!! But I left my camera card at home this morning .

I'll post them after I go home for lunch!!

 

I have just been using windex on mine this year, haven't noticed any change. I also used the tripoli and white rouge products and I still have some little scratch marks. I will probably pull it off again this winter and do it over again. Did you use a bench grinder or a drill to buff?

 

Here's some pics of my work.

The first one doesn't really show of it's "shinyness" (partially 'cause its a little blurry), but I think the second one speaks for itself.

 

Good job that turned out nice!

I didnt clear my stuff and it didnt oxidize much.

 

Wow, I can really appreciate that amazing job on those runners...