Well, I've got alot of sanding done on the edlebrock base so far. Still have quite a bit to do since I still have quite a few areas of deep scratches, I have gotten all the bad areas done and blended in some bad areas for a nicer look however the manifold is actually coming out pretty nice. So far I have completely polished the fuel rails, thermostat housing & distributor base for the system and they have a nice chrome shine to them, the Edelbrock manifold and SLP runners are the hardest since they were in pretty rough shape I should be starting on the runners next week.

Here are before and progress so far on the manifold.

 

man looks like you're doing a great job. about how many hours do you have in it so far??

 

I don't know honestly just do it when I have time so it's a off and on project. So far what you see is it after 180 grit so still have get a few more areas then hit it with 400 and 600 wet.

 

I took and updated the picture so far but sadly my work hours have gotten out of hand so I am going to be taking it to a professional to finish it.

I did however want to show you a golfball comparison between a stock manifold and this one.

 

I most likely will do some extra porting on this manifold and slp runners before everything is polished or just have it extrude honed not sure yet. but I do believe there is enough wall material to play with and make it breathe even better.

 

thats a dirty tpi system
how much does the accel base go for anyways?
i think i want one of those motors in a sports car and in a truck

 

I hit the manifold today with tripoli to see how my sanding progress is coming along. I'm not really sure why some area stay sorta cloudy since I've tried staying at coarser sand paper in those areas maybe it's just the aluminum.

Anyways in about 80% of the area it's starting to shine up nice I figure when the system is together wont be able to notice these cloudy areas anyways. Saturday I'm going to try emery on the whole manifold as a last ditch attemp to get the last imperfections out then tripoli and see what happens .... but at any rate it looks much better then before.

 

keep in mind most of this is just shadow effect its actually pretty shiny right now

 

I will post pictures of it tomorrow in the sunlight that picture doesn't even come remotely close to how it looks. I am anticipating it being all done by next weekend and then it goes to ebay but would really like to see it go to someone here that will put it to good use on a detailed engine. ... Just wanted to show you all its not really that hard if I can do it anyone can and probably much faster since I am slow as hell. If your parts are in better condition it will be a breeze for you to do, mine were in real bad shape thats why it's taking so long ..... Heck maybe I will just toss it all in my trans am LOL.

The intake is the hardest to do by far but rejoice in the fact it doesn't have to be perfect since all the other stuff will cover areas that are really hard to get to anyways.

If any of you are interested in the system let me know and I will send more detailed pictures when it is finished.

 

here is a much better picture of it. This is after just tripoli haven't gotten to the white rouge step yet but aside from some scratches that Im not even going to bother with sice they will be covered by the other TPI parts it looks great just as it is.

 

Wow man, that looks great!

 

you did a great job

 

wow that looks great. iam in the works of polishing my upper but ive been sanding and cant seen to get the pors out i know it sand casted has pits but wow. what did you do.

 

180/320 then buffed with emery then tripoli

 

you'll never get it perfect just do the best you can and buff it and see how it comes out then after buffing you'll see where you need to do more sanding. Emery does a great job of removing 320 sanding marks. and forget the areas that are real tight areas it's a pain getting them perfect I gave up on them.

Besides no one will take a magnifying glass to your system and from 5 feet away you cant see the scratches just concentrate primarily on the runners and plenum and they wont even notice the imperfections on the manifold since it's covered up anyways.

 

Oh your doing the plenum .... try a palm sander with 80 grit to cut it down quik. There is plenty of material to work with .... If that doesnt work try another plenum maybe just was a really bad casting is all. Two of mine haven't been like what you describing.

 

can i see pics of your upper plenum polished. i got to get mine perfect even if i have to weld on the top then machine it down and polish it back. (worst case)

 

Haven't completed my plenum yet. I am going to start on it this weekend though .... Odd yours is this bad .... Just buy another one they are cheap and plentiful what year system are you working on?

 

1987 iroc z 350 auto bone stock. fully loaded 65000 kms. my baby has not seen a drop of rain or bad weather since it was drove off the lot i bought it off of a doctor 10 years ago.

 

The pics look great. It brings back painful memories of porting and polishing my own tpi setup a few years ago. The end result is worth it tho. Have fun with the runners if you end up doing them yourself. I had crappy SLP runners to work with. Porting them and polishing them sucked more than polishing the base alone

And bodybag, don't worry too much about the "perfect" finish on the top of the plenum. Some plenums when polished show different colors or rings. The difference between "perfect" and"thats pretty damned sweet" could be days of polishing.....

Here is my crappy attempt at polishing stuff on an 89 GTA I had......

 

Razor

That looks pretty good .... who cares if it isnt the professional look still anything looks better the how you buy them ...

My runners and plenum have been ported by previous owner so not sure if I can make them any better.
----------
Bodybag

If you want to buy a plenum I have a plenum that will work on yours and can polish it for extra.

 

It's my understanding you see these rings and discolrating (clouding) from using to fine of sandpaper. See I stopped sanding at 320 grit dry and then used emery buff to get that scratches smoothed out.

 

Hmmm....it could be. IIRC I stopped at 400 grit and then started in with the 3 different colors of clay bars. I thought mine might have been caused by overheating the plenum when I was polishing with the clay bars. At one point the plenum was warm enough to melt them like a crayon on a hotplate. Either that or it was already in the plenum when it was manufactured.

Oddly enough I only had this problem on the plenum. I did the same steps on the runners, the base and the odd piece like the AC condenser and lines, ect and never had the dreaded ring of colors.

 

Uh yeah you might have got it a bit to hot LOL but not by much LOL .... re sand to 320 dry then emery/tripoli/white rouge

 

Hehehe oooppps on the plenum. Ah well now all I have is a plastic intake so I should be safe

 

thought you'de all like to see the progress on my runners so far. keep in mind these were in very bad chape when I started this project but are coming along nicely. I still have alot of sanding left to do on them but they should turn out nice when finished.
I know they wont be perfect due to pits that were to deep. right now they are at 120 grit and they shiny areas you see I polishe with tripoli to see how smoother the surface is in some very bad areas prior to sanding.

 

A piece of advice if you do ever plan on polishing ... never buy stuff that has been powder coated .... it is a big pita to remove it, it gets in every little pour and tight spot. that is what is majorly slowing me down now, I thought obout using a paint stripper but dont want anything to cause me more greif polishing. But they are starting to look good sp they should be done in a few days.

 

NAPA BRAND CARB CLEANER or Air Craft Paint Stripper will remove the powder in about 10-20min. and leave your part clean.

 

thanks

I've sanding almost all of it off but some remains in hardt to sand areas. I will try this.

 

well I had to start again with 100grit on these runners. They are in pretty rough shape but I did take and quik do one side of the runner with 100/180/320 emery/tripoli it seemed to shine up pretty good so I'm going to do it all like this. I know they will not be perfect by a long shot but hey they will at least have a nice shine to them.

 

Looks good!!!

 

OK, so I just completed 1 runner for my system ... keep in mind all part that are shiny so far have just been buffed with tripoli they still have the final buffing with white rouge left to do on them but I dont plan on doing that till the system is sold. ..... anyways here is a semi finished runner, the other one just needs to be sanded with 380 and then I will hit it with tripoli as well.

 

here is the system semi-put together ....

BTW I lost my thermostat housing anyone have one they will sell me at a reasonable price?

 

BTW the plenum isn't done yet its just semi done to check progress has quite a few scratches that need attention. I am fairly positive the system will be done sometime this weekend.

 

you can pick up a TPI thermostat housing at an auto supply store.. I know this because I sent my stuff out to get polished and my housing didn't return!!

 

Hehehe. Looks like the plenum has been opened up at the throttle body. Looks nice. I also believe you said those are the first generation SLP runners. That will make a nice setup for someone.

 

yes the plenum runners and intake have been mildly ported by the previous owner ... Yes they are first generation runners the rear two runners are completely siamesed.

thank for the compliment & compliments from others.
----------
my89

you had asked about the runners sometime back didn't you?

 

Bodybag

here is my 1986 plenum after sanding for 20 minutes .... there are some pits but very small. yours should turn out like this this is after sanding with 100grit medium ..... sorry I dont have time to mess with this plenum till my other stuff is done but try 100 grit on yours.

 

Bodybag

here is 100/180 and then emery you should have at least got mine still has scratches but yours must be a bad casting to have the pits that it does this one started to shine up immediately.

 

"but I dont plan on doing that till the system is sold" Are you planning on selling this setup?

 

jstoltz

yes this system will be sold when finished. will have new 350 injectors should be done this weekend for sure.

anyways heres some new pictures of it. I finished the other runner today didn't come out perfect cause of pits like the other but now they both have a very nice shine to them. I still have to cleanup the backsides of the runners though. Anyways here is the progress.

 

Today I made some good progress on my plenum. I was just going to do the typical top & side polish but after a couple of beers decided to go for broke ... I'm going to polish my plenum top, bottom, sides and front to back. Yea a little overkill but what the heck I have 3 days to complete this. It's not even close to done as of yet I am going to remove all casting logo's and smooth it all out, I figure this will be done by tomorrow sometime.

 

that looks a millon times better than mine. a buddy of mine said to have my plemun glass beaded. it should take out most of the pitts.

 

bodybag you want to buy that one instead? 40.00 plus shipping for just then plenum

 

Well, I got my plenum sanded dow to 100grit and it's coming along nicely. Unfortunately the GM logos were a nightmare to get rid of and even when you have it leaves a minor indentation but oh well they are gone. doing the bottom is alot of work I wouldn't do it again, but on this system I want everything nice so thats the reason I did it.

Tomorrow I will do the finishing sanding on it and probably polish it. I still haven't found mt thermostat housing so that is a minor setback. I will post picture of the plenum when I'm all done.

 

OK, today I hit the plenum with 180 grit and the trusty palm sander and it started coming out pretty nice. I still have to take and do some hand sanding to get into the tight areas and get some of the high and low spots out. then do the final 380/400 and polish.

 

heres the bottom of it now

 

thats looking pro!
i did some sanding to my rims on my car.
the clear coat was coming off.
i finished one wheel and it looks 1000 times better when they were new.
i finished with 800 insted of 600.
tho yours are looking mighty fine!

 

Yea I did the wheel beads on my trans am rims to but didnt go for the polished look on them cause my rims are gold to so high polish and gold to me doesn't go very well.
----------
I never went to even 600 grit on this tpi system ... I stopped at 400 grit wet/dry but stayed dry and then used emery buffing compound to get it like this. Emery will pull out 400grit marks with ease, I've heard when you start going to fine on sanding you can get the cloudy effect.

 

ohhh yeah.
i think my car has the american outlaw II series rims.
15x9.
they were on the car when i bought them.
they look so terrible. they still do. but ill polish em all up during winter times.
i had to sand all the clear coat when i found a website saying that paint remover works good. so i tryed it. whent sooo much faster haha.

im getting a new intake. its cheaper if its not polished. is it possible to sand it and polish it yourself? im going to get the victor Jr. type intake.
----------
really? i did not know that.
i thought finer was always better. makes it smoother. finer sraches.
learn somethng everyday :P