so before i swap the setup onto my car i thought i'd polish what i can and make it look really nice so here are some before and after pics sorry they aren't that great but i couldn't figure out the lighting. i think i just need to get some kind of polish on it. i hear some people talking about white rouge being the best to use but where do i get it?

 

I'd love to know about the best polish to use as well, and where to get it. Plenum looks great!

What steps did you use to get to the point your at now?

 

re. polishing compounds... If you have a truckstop close they have bars of compound. I would recommend starting with a red rouge then you can either get a green rouge or the white rouge. They come in bars about 9 in. long. I can't remember how much they cost, but they aren't that expensive. Then find a good hand polish. Magic mix is a good hand polish has a good shine to it. Good luck

 

you can get polish from eastwoods. www.eastwood.com I believe. That is where I got mine from. Get the tripoli compound and the white rouge compound. the tripoli compound with a spiral sewn buffing wheel is a rougher cut. Use that first then go back over it with the white rouge and a loose wheel. here are some pictures of mine.



check out this page too, it is very useful
http://www.gmtips.com/3rd-degree/dox...m/pol-plen.htm

 

Dnagt that thing is so clean id eat off it but that would probaly dirty it up, I know what I gotta do get some polishing supplies and polish the heck out of mine

 

how did you go about polishing your runners?
and where did you get that rubber reducer to connect your maf to your tb?

 

although the runners look alright in the pictures, they still need more polishing.

The rubber reducer is just that, a rubber reducer from the plumbing section at home depot. LOL.......what the heck, it turned out okay, huh?

 

i'll say, looks better than that flexible piece all scrunched up to fit between the maf and throttle body with that ramair box, but do you remember what the dimensions on the reducer are?

 

So far your it looks like you're on the right track there. But you're going to have to get all of those TINY pits out of the alum. before it shines like chrome.

My advice is to do what I did ... after a LOT of time and a LOT of effort in my garage, I took my "very shiny" but not "mirror-like" pieces to a polishing shop in Charlotte, NC called C&C Polishing. For $75 they made all my pieces (Plenum, Dist. Cover, Throttle Body, TB Plate, Runners) look just like chrome. The reason it was $75 was because most of my pieces just needed a "re-buff" by the pro's. But my runners I gave to them rough and dirty. I didn't even want to TRY to do my runners at home.

 

well it's not a show car so i'm not really worried about making it look spectacular, i just wanna make it look better than it did, which i've already achieved, so i might not spend the money on any polish

 

JohnnyBoy

Just thought I'd let you know that your
photos inspired me to do the
Mike Graycar plenum
I got on ebay a couple of years ago.

It is completely ported & bead blasted.

I don't have a camera let alone a digital one.

I also don't have many tools or the do-it-yourself
ability that most you guys have.

I used a Black & Decker Mouse sander
for doing the 180, 220.
I did the 320 wet, 400 wet by hand.

I sanded on it about 3 hours a day for a week.
And never could get all the little pin head dots
sanded off.

When I thought I finally got them,
They showed back up during the polishing process.

For polishing I use my Sear cordless drill.
With Emery, Tripoli, & white rouge.
I added some liquid jewlers polish on last
for good measure.

Like you said mine is not a show car.
So it's good enough for me.

I'm sure it would have been cheeper to buy the stuff online,
But I hit the local hardware stores for what I needed.
No one store had every thing, but I got it all eventualy.

 

ram air'd gta nailed it, it's exactly what i used.

 

i heard just some mothers aluminum polish works decent too, anybody try this?

 

If you get your plenum "mirror-like", the last thing you want to put on it is Mother's. It's abrasive and will dull the finish. But if it is "kinda shiny", Mother's could do wonders.

 

mine semi polished runners. thinking about powder coating them or polishing them even more. Runners didnt come out as well as the plenum. Have to get some plenum and intake pics for u guys.

 

For mine :

I soaked it in parts cleaner to clean the plenum and runners. I polished the intake manifold also but then decided to make it a gunmetal color with chrome flakes.

1. I sprayed it with chemical called red hot to get any grease and such off. Scrubbed it with a hard bristle brush.

2. Then I took and used a wire wheel on my air tool. Feathered it lightly over the whole thing, groves and all. Did the same with my runners.

3. Wet sanded the whole pleneum including the plenunm ,runners and fuel rails with some 380(Ithink 380 or 400).

4.polished it with some 3m power cut compound, then polished it with some mothers stage 2 polish.

Took me about 4 hours to get her done. the red hot is what really speeded up the process taking most of the oxidation off.

 

Cant a guy use grades of grit on a da sander to cut down to a polish? I don't have nice air tools and all. What about the distributor cover? Scuff and spray some duplicolor chrome?

 

ditch the original dist cover for a vette one, those are aluminum, ours are plastic. some of our sponsors sell them too.

 

No What I did was took and made the plate on the throttle body gunmetal to match the int. man and sprayed the dist.cover gunmetal also, the chrome flakes in the gunmetal really made it pop.

U dont have to use air tools u can use a nice 18v drill with a wire wheel attachment or like someone else said a mouse sander.

 

Start with
120. work your way upto 400
buff with white rouge and your done.
Simple as that.

Use hand tools,air tools, da,etc..
My Old rims...
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...s/DSC01484.JPG
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...s/DSC01485.JPG
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...s/DSC01486.JPG
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...s/DSC01487.JPG
My Turbo
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...hed%20HX55.jpg