If so, got any pics? Just wondering if it's worth it.

I spent last evening trying to polish my headers. I only got one of them partially done, the 321 stainless is very hard. Anyone got any hints/shortcuts. I'm just using a buffing wheel on a bench grinder and some smaller buffs on a die grinder, along with a couple of buffing compounds.

 

I saw a pic just last week of a set a guy had polished. Only problem is I have no idea where I saw them at. I thought they looked really sharp, a lot better than the as cast look. I don't know if I'd want to spend the time on them though, but everybody's different.

 

I bead blasted mine but they are 304ss and they came out looking satin grey. Not too bad. Reason is I had a lot of grinding marks on from where I sanded down my tach welds so it looked kind of crappy. They look better now.

Yours look pretty nice in the pic you posted. I wouldnt even mess with em.

 

Guido,

You sanded down the welds si it looks uniformly smooth? I'd like to see some pics of you've got any. I was also thinking of doing that, but was concerend it might weaken the welds.

 

no no when I put the headers together, I did them in my garage with a 110 welder and it left a lot of the weld sticking up. I brought them into work to be TIG welded and the guy doing the welding wanted me to sand all my tack welds down even with the material so it didnt mess up his TIG while going through those areas. I did a lot of sanding and then he went over everything but it didnt get rid of the sandmarks on the tubes. So I just tossed one in the cabinet to see what it would look like with all the sanding marks removed.


You can see all the sanding marks on this one yet the welds still look good.


This side it has all been blasted and looks almost like a "cast" header or as if its been painted with a satin greay spray can.

 

Okay. Thanks for the pics. I still can't get over how big that turbo of yours is. Makes my 60mm turbo's like tiny!

 

88mm I believe?

 

I'm a sucker for things shiney...

Thanks to everyone who offered me advice on the best/easiest way to polish this stuff.

 

Looks great Monty. About how long did that take you to do?

 

About 3 hours for each compressor housing. I got a good smooth finish and shine on about 3/4's of each housing in about 1 hour, but the last 25% takes alot of of hand wet-sanging and polishing - the areas that the sander and buffing wheel can't reach, like between the scroll and the oulet. I guess it depends on how **** you are - it rained all weekend here in Chicago so I had alot of time on my hands...