Before




After







Yea I know, the lighting sux, but it came out beautiful. I gotta do my whole intake now. I learned alot of new tricks trying things to get a real good shine.

 

Good Job man, I found that polishing the extension plate was no too difficult. Polishing the plenum however, that will be a different story. (casted from a different metal i've heard, takes more time to polish)

 

You did that already?! LOL

 

looks great, good job.

 

Nice work.

 

Now you did it, made me pull my custom made one off to polish it, now if I could just find some sand paper. I guess I'll have to buy some in the morning.

 

Yeap

Thanks guys



It really shines great, turned out better then my AC did on my car. I just wish I could get a good pic to show you guys.


I was sitting there with 180 sanding off the cast for like an hour. And my dad was like "Why dont you use a electric sander" and I told him that I didnt wanna screw it up. He showed me how to do it, and had the casting off in like 5 minutes.

 

wow great job!!

 

Did you use the "sand with every grit that exists" method or did you use buffing compounds and wheels?

 

nice job man....i got to do mine as soon as it comes in. Ordered it last week.

 

Thanks again guys

Heres a better pic (Yea I gotta clean the groves)





MetalliCamaroRS, I used a electric sander with 240 on it to rid of the cast. Then went to 300 something, then 600 wet, 800 wet, 1200 wet, 2000 wet, and applied the aluminum polish with a buffing wheel.

 

I started at 80 grit to remove the casting and I think I started to see a shine around 400. I never even got around to wet sanding it. It shined beautifully, although in my mind, ive not finished. I have not hit it up with any buffing compound (tripoli, diamond rouge)

 

Great job, lookd good.

 

Where do you get that stuff?

 

I got it at a place called harborfreight. They have a website you can get it at. http://www.harborfreight.com . I got mine at one of their local stores though. Otherwise you should be able to find it at a hardware store (I am not betting on home depot though).

 

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=9736

The stuff is cheap as well

 

That looks great! I can't wait to see the intake!

 

sears has it. you get 4 different small compound bars and 3 small buffing wheels for 9.99. stock # is 28650. also, eastwood company sells them in 13 oz. bars. www.eastwoodcompany.com

BTW, if anyone ever has any questions about sears, or any thing Craftsman, ask me. I will have an answer. I have worked in Sears hand/power tools for just under a year.

 

JUST finished mine as well......here she is...I used mothers aluminum polish on mine.....worked well...but...it kind of first had a "hazzy" look.......but....I worked it out...

 

Me too. The more times I used it, The haz slowly went away. Then my dad got me a polishing wheel.

 

IF you don't mind me askin....what kind of buffing wheel? The ones you can put on the end of a drill ...or an actual buffing wheel....(paint buffer)?

 

Drill one. Its in the second pic. It really helped me out ALOT.

 

Well....I'm going to have to invest in one of those then....looks really "deep"......I'm going to finish up the rest of my plenum this spring too. You know the grooves that go through the plenum and the extension? Are you going to paint them like a satin black )or any other color)....or are you just going to leave them with that "cast" look??

 

LOL I was just thinking of that. I dunno if I should just clean it and leave it the way it is, or paint them blue. I think it would look good, and go along with my stripe on the car

 

Nice organized tool wall I see. Great job!

 

Awwww yeah....that would look good....it would "highlight" your engine bay....! Maybe someone could photoshop it!??? Although my car is all black....I was even thinkin about maybe having red stripes....?

 

Black and red go good together

 

Painting the grooves is a great idea. I did them on my car when I polished the extension, and it looks so much better. I painted them black to match the black on my car. Plus it is much easier to keep clean this way.

 

Ok....my 91 ZEE28 is all black with grey interior....I'm thinkin that the grooves would look awesome painted red....it would match my MSD ignition box...and it would stand out...(I guess I could try both colors though... to see which one I liked better)...anyone have any thoughts?....

 

I am polishing mine now, when i am finished I am going to paint the grooves gold to match the gold inserts in the rims and the gold stripes I intend to put back on the car this summer, will post pix when finished

 

I have just removed my plenum for porting purposes and I want to polish it as well.. What do you guys used to do this?? looks great please help!!

 

Alright.....this is how I did it....but....alot of people do it different ways....First....I started out with 180 grit sand paper.....and dry sanded untill about 600 grit. After I was done sanding with the 600 dry sand....I went back to 220 wet sand..(and wet sanded through all the grits 220, 320, 400, 600.....etc....) all the way up through 1500. Once I was done with 1500 grit wetsand....I hand polished the TPI extension with Mothers Aluminum Polish. When I Get to my Plenum Section.....I'm going to go ahead and use an electric Sander.....will be much faster.....but I'll go through the same grits of sandpaper......I'll also use a buffing wheel to polish the larger section of the plenum....will be much easier and should look really awesome....how did everyone else do their's!??!?

( I did my plenum already...but I didn't get everylast "glitch" out of it...so.....I'm going to redue it to make it look as good as my TPI extension.....)

 

do you guy's want to know what take's the polish off of your aluminum when your done polishing it, with out any work at all, and it seems to help it shine even better, your going to laugh but try it frist,, baking powder that right good old baking powder you won't beleave how easy it comes off when your done,just put some on a rag and it wipe's it right off trust me it works.
give it a try and let me know..

 

1. 180 dry
2. 320 wet
3. 400 wet forever
4. emery compound on hard buffing wheel
5. emery compound on soft buffing wheel
6. tripoli compound on hard buffing wheel
7. white rouge compound on soft wheel

what color groove stripes would look good on my car? red, black...?

 

Ok I got tripoli and diamond rouge. I guess I just buff them on and off right?



Here goes nothing....

 

Post some pics after ur done with it. Also the long debated Q. What do u guys think is better for the best shine available. Go from 180-2000 then use mothers....or just go with 180 dry 360 wet and then 400 wet with some compounds to follow it up. seems like everyones doing something different. times not a factor i just want the best results. Also im doing the rims while im at it. is it the same process for this as well? Thanks all and sorry about the post i know theres lots of polishing topics i just wanna do the best i can for my baby

 

I just recently re-sanded and polished my plenum and runners...I used mothers...it worked pretty well...I think I might also try a few other products too.

 

-if you want a mirror like finish that's dull and cloudy go up to 2000 grit.

-if you want a mirror like finish that looks like a mirror w/o dullness or cloudy-ness, go up to 400 wet and then use compounds.

it seems that more people are using compounds cuz it gives a more shiny finish, but people using high grit sandpaper do get good results, but spend more time with the sandpaper, when it's not necessary to.

 

Thansk man im going only up to 400 then the compounds.

 

Well, as I have said before, it only cost me about $50 and a couple of days to sand, polish, prime and paint all (4) of my 85-87 IROC wheels. Granted I'm no professional by any means, actually my wheels and a few other odds and ends are the only things I have ever polished. I dont see where you get cloudy at, there is a mirror finish to my wheels, but I have never seen anything, in person, polished with compounds to compare with. I tell you what, I'll go and buy all the compounds and wheels and polish one of my wheels all over again, and then I'll post before and after pics., and give the low down on 80 to 2000 vs. compounds.

I'll compare ease, affordability and final product. Well see.

 

Nice tread.