so when the rebuild was finished on my Formula, there were a couple of mechanical and detailing issues i had to contend with.

1) (mechanical) a MAJOR vacuum leak at the intake runners.

2) (detailing) factory finish on TPI runners (whether stockers, or in my case, aftermarket) is porous, and difficult to keep clean as it is prone to staining. my solution was to have the runners powdercoated black chrome while i had them off to replace the gaskets. plus, since the plenum was already powdercoated black, i wasnt loving the contrast anyway. black chrome turned out to be lighter than expected and had a bit of contrast as well.

so i fixed the vacuum leak, but over time, the powder coat started to wear away around the linkage cables. also, repeated testing for leaks (brake cleaner method) was eating away at the outter layer of powder coat in a spray pattern. the layer underneath appeared to be a gunmetal black, closer to what i originally wanted (black anodized) to begin with. so, one day i said "screw it", took a rough rag and brake cleaner, and went to town on it. i think it was an improvement.

oh, almost forgot. the third issue (detailing) that has continued to haunt me. without going into all the ins and outs of how i got screwed on my engine build (if not money-wise, then definitely time-wise) this A-HOLE, sprayed that wax **** all over my engine...all over my intake ducting that i had literally spent hours detailing . so every time i detail the car, i have to try to remove a little more of that wax. anyhoo, i sold (actually gave away) my black 89 Formula 350 project, but retained the intake ducting because the guy wants to carb it. so, today, i rattlecaned the intake ducting with Satin Black spray paint. not sure what the future will hold, but for now, it looks better than the other one which is clean but with stubborn remnants of spray on wax.

here are some pics.

 

So did you rattlecan the plenum and runners too, or just rough them up and clean the powder? My gloss black powder on the plenum and runners will get scratches, but little polish and wax and it looks great again.

 

the plenum is powdercoated with Gloss Black. i havnt done anything to it. i basically wiped off the top layer of the layer of powder coat on the runners, which revealed a sort of Gunmetal color. what was rattle canned was the extra rubber intake ducting that i had.

 

Guess I didn't get what the out come of the rubbing was. It looks good under there though. Props!!!

 

looks good but might as well have painted the throttle body black too

 

good point.