zjbarra

iTrader: (2)

I am thinking I'm going to hand sand the entire intake track and then polish it by hand. What grit should I start and work down do?

andrew lohaus

whew, get some advil to go with that carpel tunnel syndrome. start like 75/100,150,300,600,1200

the exact #3 dont matter so much just start with something realy aggressive but wont gouge it up too much and work your way down to about 1000+ in 5 or six increments

YearsOfDecay

In our shop, we start with industrial carbide 80 grit and work up to 600 grit... Then start up the buffing machines with sisal wheels and cutting compound, then cotton wheels with cut and color compound, then flannel wheels with high lustre compound.

If you are just using the old drill method, you'd better spend a LOT of time sanding, and sand to about 1200 grit.

Nooks and crannies we get with felt bobs on the dremels and extension wands for the electric motors we have in the shop.

We also use die grinders, drills and dremel tools in the process.

I remove all the casting seams, excess material and smoothe the edges out with a Tree-shaped aluminum burr on a die grinder before i start any sanding. A ball shaped burr is used for tight places

Use sanding cones on a small drill or heavy duty dremel to get into the grooves.

Wear a mask... aluminum dust is POISONOUS. I wear a full face mask with twin HEPA filters when i work... My main job is for the state Emergency Response program.. so I know what I'm talking about here!!

Digi7ech

iTrader: (1)

I'm doing it right now to my manifolds.

I used a dremel with 120 grit barrel in it. Then a conical grinding stone/bit for the hard places to get at.

After gettiing it down to a some what smooth/non textured surface I used 220 grit.

I then used 320/330 (something like that) wet on it and it came out pretty smooth.

There are a few imperfections due to the dremel getting away or staying on a spot too long but over all it loos pretty good.

I'm about to go to the buffing wheel stage. I might go over with a 800-1k grit next if I don't feel lazy.

Years..
What is a Sisal wheel? Any recommendations for compounds?

I'm not totally familiar w/ the compounds. What's a color compound?



Also what does the Aluminum do to you? I did it without a mask but so far don't have any respiratory problems and I did the major sanding 3 weeks ago.

Digi7ech

iTrader: (1)

here are pics of them.
The LIM was only down with the 120 grit


The UIM is down with 220 and 320

PHATFC3S

hey years of decay... what would it cost me to send my mani's to you guys and have it done. i dont really have the time to mess with it and polish it all up. and your like an hr and 1/2 away so i could send them back up with my buddy when he goes home

Bukwild

chrome it. Looks better and will fill in the imperfections to look like glass

jreynish

iTrader: (2)

Chrome is HEAVY!!! and you can get just as good a look from polishing!

I will be doing mine soon and I intend on staring with 100, 200, 400, 700, 1000, 1200 (wet) then with a polishing compound get her to shine!

YearsOfDecay

A sisal wheel is like a sewn cotton wheel, except that the "guts" of the wheel are made out of a hemp like ficer called sisal. They are really aggressive, and will take out scratches for 220 grit if you really don't feel like sanding..... we go to 600 and then lightly hit the parts with the sisal. You have to watch out with a sisal wheel and rake it a lot cause if the wheel gets too gunked up with aluminum, it will gaull the part and then you have to start over again.

the high color compound is the last one you use.. its really dry and chalky and what it does is and more lustre to the part.. making the reflections more colorful

The aluminum probably won't give you any repiratory problems (long lasting) other than a hacking cough for a while.. HOWEVER.. it will get into your blood stream and make you physically sick.. headache's, nausea, tired all the time... it can effect your liver and kidneys and cause damage to the nervous system similar to lead or mercury.. just as my idiot partner ZKeller here on the forum who polished his complete intake system in one sitting without wearing a mask and then thought he got food poisoning for the next week!!!

YearsOfDecay

I've had a talk with ZKeller, the other guy in TRB, and we'll polish any UIM for 75 bucks. 25 for the TB until the word gets around!! (we get a LOT more on ebay!!)

also.. I have several N/A, TII, and FD UIMS here in the shop... If you contact us for a polishing job, we'll polish one of the on hand units, ship it to you and then you can swap it out with yours and send us yours back to get the core charge back so that you have no down time!!!!!

I just got a guy on board who can clearcoat the finished parts for an additinal charge so that they stay perfect. he says his coating is good to 1200 degrees and that he's had parts on drag cars for two years that still look new.

we also can do bead blasting for real cheap and then have those clearcoated as well!

FCPowah

do you port that **** too? and for how much?

nerid25

now im scared of doing sanding with aluminium

YearsOfDecay

LOL if you wear a mask with a HEPA filter, your A-OK, I just see a LOT of people polishing stuff and I work with HAZMATS all the time, so i'd like to warn 'em before they get sick or bug out!!

Also.... Aluminum dust is EXPLOSIVE..... repeat... EXPLOSIVE.. a large amount of explosives today use a fuel and aluminum powder mixed... BOOOM! So... No SMOKIN IN THE SHOP!!!!

BlackRx7

does that mean I'm going to get altimers since I didn't wear a mask while porting my exhuast ports on my Alumiun Rotor housing.....but then again I inhaled much much worse things in my day

"Whatever Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger"
- some guy

YearsOfDecay

full job on a t-body.. polishing the exterior, porting polishing the interior is 75 bucks... it takes as long as polishing the outside of the entire UIM ....YOU must dissassemble t-body before shipment to us...

YearsOfDecay

Actually.... there is a link between alsheimers and metals exposure... :P but i think I'm screwed from all that LSD back when i was in college!!!!

88IntegraLS

Blah, forget polished aluminum. Someone make a carbon fiber intake manifold. It would not be just for looks; carbon fiber will retain a fraction of the heat of the equivalent strength of aluminum, so the engine won't lose power from headed intake air after it warms up. Some formula SAE car at my school has a beautiful carbon fiber intake manifold on its I4 Yamaha (or something) motorcycle engine. Yeah, that was the right way to do a manifold. A bunch of engineering students came up with it.

Digi7ech

iTrader: (1)

Heeheheheh
Aluminum powder and Iron Oxide + magnesium as fuse === Thermite

YearsOfDecay

C/F would be good for certain things, however, a Turbo Manifold is not one of them.. at least not with the technology that 99.9% of the people here on the forum have. You would still have to use metal mating surfaces and they would have to be incorporated in the C/F bodies in order to make a good seal against the engine/ throttle body, etc. the intake pipes would be relatively simple, although you would again have to use metal at the coupler clamp surfaces to avoid crushing the C/F pipe when mating the sections together.

C/F, while stronger that aluminum, is also more flexible.. it also has a nasty habit of forming cracks when repeated stress is placed in line with its fiber weave... not goot for a pressurized system.

If you were to cut through one of those ongodly expensive Carbon Fiber driveshafts... you would see that it has an aluminum alloy core (granted, very thin walled compared to a stock driveshaft), "re-enforcecd" with carbon fiber to save weaight over a conventional thick walled driveshaft.

As soon as I get heat in my shop, I'm going to start experimenting with different C/F parts. The first of which will be a fresh air headlight cover, and a cold air duct and box, C/F pipework is on a high priority list, but my non-rocket-scientis *** is going to leave the intake manifold as a interesting thought cause I haven't got a whole R&D lab to work with!

88IntegraLS

*sources please*

Ratheon co. makes complete jet fuselages, which must maintain roughly 10 psi over a huge surface area, over thousands of pressurization / depressurization cycles, out of carbon fiber. Columbia aircraft co. does the same thing with its Columbia 500 four place single engine aircraft.

Light covers are for fiberglass mat, unless you consider a black lattice "aesthetic" and want to leave the bare fiber showing through the resin . .