lookin good. i finally got out to my brothers where i keep the vette and took the plenum off (only broke two vacuum lines!) and started sanding on that. pictures to come soon! on a side note i really need to get some kind of electric sander because its just me some paper and a ton of elbow grease. it works, but man does it take forever!

 

palm sander is good on only a few areas ... I have had better success with my drill and drum rolls or the pointed type rolls .... The dremel and drum rolls works really good as well but the drill is way more stable and doesn't tend to jump and skip like a dremel.

 

couple questions about your plenum. did you sand the inside the grooves on the top? i was thinking leave them cast or even paint them black and what do you use to get into the tiny little grooves like the front top portion. the dremel work there?

 

Left them cast because not sure what color the buyers car will be. But honestly I think on the 86 plenum I am going to weld in those grooves and then sand them smooth. I think that would look awsome.

I've got a few more ideas I'm thinking about as well with the plenum.
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I think though a small dremel wheel and use it like a router would clean them grooves up nice.

 

these are only tools I used to do these TPI systems.

 

well my car is black so i definitely think painting them black will look good, but i cant wait to see how it looks if you fill it in. should look real clean

 

I'de powdercoat it if I were you .... I've seen a couple other guys grind down these ribs on the plenum but I don't see how they do it and still make the plenum extension match. There just isn't enough material on the plenum extension to grind those ribs down for a flat finish.

Theres quite a few threads on here involving painting/powdercoating these ribs but I've never seen any where the ribs have been filled. I'm going to buy a junk plenum to practice this on first though to make sure I can do it LOL.

 

im just painting the grooves black, leaving the ribs on the top polished. in fact im on my way to buff and polish the top of the plenum, just wrapped up sanding (i need a dremel or something before i can do the whole thing. i hand sanded down that cast line on the plenum extension and that alone mustve took 45 minutes!) ill be posting pics in an hour or so

 

I dont know. I usualy just get inspired and do some stuff randomly. I probly will eventually but not right now its cold to work on my car.

 

wow, i love those 10 spoke ss wheels on your sig pic. those wheels were the only thing i ever liked about the fourth gen, and its good to know they look even better on a third gen. here are the pictures that i promised, still got alot of scratches on the plenum but i should be able to smooth em out real good

 

Jproz,

what compounds and stuff do you use to polish after grinding and sanding down with that drill/dremel tools?

Awesome work by the way!
How many times were you asked if you are crazy or something?
people tell me that all the time when I say I swap out an auto to a manual tranny...can't imagine what they'd say if I polish some engine parts hehe...

 

Read one of my other post's and that will answer the crazy question

okay the dremel and drill sanding roll are anywhere from 80-120 grit. I use them to get the coarse surface knocked down quikly. Generally start with 80 grit but you really have to go easy or it will laeve high/low spots everywhere. but like I said it does it quikly and also works the natural pits out fast as well.

I use this same method in the hard to reach areas as well

when I have all that removed then I start hand sanding everything with 120/320/400 sometimes I got to 600 grit where the buffing whell has a hard time polishing.

what you see in the pictures hasn't even had final polishing done to it. That is just after using emery compound on it all. But even so it all has a nice shine but will buff white white rouge before selling it.
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Ive had good luck on the plenum stopping at 400dry then using emery it will get rid on any 400grit scratches easily ..... nice work though you almost got it done!

 

Spent a little time on this 86 manifold today .... was working with my dremel and 120grit drums. Still have a few areas that need 80grit to knock down casting areas but it is actually coming along much faster then my edelbrock did.

The areas where the two middle bolts on each side is really bad so those areas will need alot of work but they should come out fine.

 

Wow good work man that is not an easy job. I would like to see how you did that. Ive done some polishing of my own but not anything like a tpi base with all the crevices. I havnt really tried a tpi base though im sure I could do it since I have all the right tools. Ive done wheels and exhaust so I know that intake was a lot of work. GL on the sale.

 

the crevises and tight areas aren't to bad on a stock manifold. between the runners is a hard area to do and even when you do remove the coarse surface seems like you then deal with high/low spots everywhere. I should have it done by this weekend though.

 

I ebayed my other polished tpi system and it didn't sell ... So I am going to take and do more to it and sand it completely to a finer grade of wet paper probably in the 800range .... Along with that I am going to fix every little minor pit and scratch and go for the chrome shine and put it on my Trans Am and take and polish every other aluminum part under it's hood and have a nice detailed motor.

This will include polishing all my serpentine stuff and probably chroming my pulley's along with other related engine parts. And going from the classic taxi looking engine to detailed engine.

Actually in a way I'm glad it didnt sell all the intense work is done to it now just have to add the finishing touches and I will have this L-98 looking great and perfoming like one really should. So the 86 manifold is on the back burner now for sometime while I perfect my other system.

Stay tuned

 

Im kind of glad it didnt sell then cause I cant wait to see that .

 

When I start on the manifold again will probably even punch everything out even more LOL ... I figure performance TPI stuff that is ported heavily and polished will makeup for my 3.73 to 3.08 gear swap. I did take and order a new stainless allen head bolt kit for the system today and I don't think it will take me too long to fix the little blemishes this has. I've even decided to do the back sides of the runners as well so every possible thing on this has a mirror shine. I've got a nice shine as it is so it has plenty of potential too be show quality.

I have a nice set of 2,300 mile 350 lucas injectors that I am also pondering with polishing as well and I am going to buy a aftermaket pressure regulator and polish it. I'm not found of the metal one, it looks nice and all but I'm not settling for just nice. I think that will add the overkill touch to this.

I actually have a rebuildable L-98 in my garage to so might just go all out and build it for the T/A or maybe my vette who knows.

 

wanted to share a new polishing project I started today. This is off my crossfire car it's a magnesium air cleaner lid.

I did a test area just to see how it would come out and really liked it so now I have almost the whole thing sanded down. this stuff is easier to work with then the TPI system.

So yes I actually own one of these awsome crossfire cars .... but fear not it's in a corvette!

 

that looks amazing! i always thought the lids on the crossfire were plastic. i know the one on my 82 vette is so looks like you lucked out. did you have to do anything different on the mag vs the aluminum? im about to get started on the valve covers on my vette so any tips would help.

 

air cleaner on your 82 is metal. I've seen chrome plated ones for sale ... Magnesium is alot softer then aluminum so don't start with a overly aggresive sand paper and it's my understanding after polishing magnesium you should clear coat it or it will start to dull when subjected to outside conditions.

I do know of a guy who was grinding the inside of his vettes valve covers and a spark ignited the magnesium dust ..... So all I can say is be very careful

All I'm doing so far is getting the ugly paint coating off this air cleaner using 120medium and my palm sander. The shiny pic you see was just a quik test 120/320/400wet/emery .... However emery is a little on the aggressive side for magnesium so I'm going to do the whole aircleaner 120/320/400/600wet/tripoli .... and see what happens.. I will keep you posted on what works the best.

 

the weather here in toledo is really holding me back. anywho, finally got a nice day and took some more parts off the vette. i got one of the valve covers off and i find that its painted. any ideas on whats the best way to get the paint off? and yes magnesium is way softer than aluminum, i did a little sanding with some 60 grit and the paint ground in some deep scratches that are gonna be a real pain to get out. also got one runner, and that thing is way easier than the plenum. rough sanding was done in maybe half an hour. ill post pics as i go along

 

120 grit

 

i was really hoping there was a chemical stripper but maybe youre right. im ready to do that if i have to

 

if it is a factory paint. aircraft stripper will take it off.

 

bought a can of that today. got most of the paint off before the cna ran out, think maybe one more coat will do it. have to get another can tomorow. thanks for the tip!

 

let me know how that magnesium reacted to the aircraft stripper

 

normally it will make it somewhat hazy but you will be sanding after it anyway. also it does take at least 2 coats sometimes 3. like Jproz said make sure to seal it or it will need rebuffed pretty often. I like to use the duplicolor clear to seal it. make sure to get the ceramic. It is actually for blocks and headers I think, but Autozone carries it. I have used it a few times and it's actually clear not a yellowish clear like most and it will hold up fine to the underhood temps. hope this helps. also great work on all of your stuff proz. I love the look of anything polished but it is definitely time consuming. I may polish the extra cv products billet fuel pump I have sitting around if I do I'll post a pic on here. I got a couple different techniques to try out but I need to get a few more things first.

 

like he said, a little bit hazy. has a dark, kind of oxidized look to it,but that could be because thesae valve covers are 23 years old or maybe just a little primer left over. i did a sample sanding strip and it shined up just fine. i would post a pic of it but my camera is on the fritz, but i can highly recommend the product.

 

See thats what I am concerned about. Will this stripper come back and haunt the magnesium as well. I sanded this 1984 crossfire air cleaner lid and it's the rib areas and the small recessed areas that are a paint to get that paint/powder coat .. Whatever it is out but I dont want anything to chemically damage the lid is all.

 

if i were you id just tape those areas off and paint them black, the contrast should look real good. ill try and finish up this valve cover today or tomorow and post some pics so u can see how the stripper works

 

that's what I would recommend also. I normally do the same thing on the tpi plenums it's usually to much of a pita to get inside the ribs.

 

well i got the valve cover done just fine but still dont have a workin camera so no pics. but i can tell you for sure it turns out just fine, and i think looks better than the aluminum and was a heck of alot easier. so, id say go for it with the stripper

 

glad that helped. did you seal it yet?

 

not yet. ive only done up to 400 grit sand paper then went over it with some flitz just to get an idea of how it will look and it already looks great. real easy too compared to the runners im working on. once i wet sand it real smooth ill buff it then seal it. thanks for the help