So I'm pretty close to being done polishing my UIM. Total time spent so far is about eight hours. I got a little bit lazy on the plenum, so I'm probably going to wind up going back over it.

What do you guys think? Don't be too harsh...

 

Looks good. Have a lot of extra time on your hands?

 

Nice,

Having fun cleaning the black grime out of your sink yet? lol Gotta love aluminum polishing

 

Looks good. I know what ya mean about hours spent.

 

for $100 you could have that thing looking like a mirror! but i give you props for all the hard work

 

how does one get a polish like that, do you just get some metal polish, rags and start buffin

 

looks good to me

 

Kinda

Sand.....then sand with a finer grit.......then with a finer grit.......then again with a finer grit....then polish.......then rub........then rub........then curse.......then drink a beer and stare.......then rub........then clean it up!

 

lol...that's pretty much a good explaination to how to polish aluminum ^

 

i think a beer should be placed in more of the pauses....

 

You have to grind it down.

 

I'm assuming this is your first attempt at polishing? Well anyways your doing a pretty good job. The smoother you get it the better it'll come out after buffering.
Hopefully you don't get hooked on polishing pieces for your car and lose half you highschool senior year & social life like I did, but then again to think about it......it was soooo worth the time to have a car that is "show and go." Here's a couple pictures of my work maybe it'll motivate you or someone:
Sorry if some of the pictures are really crappy

 

Yes, I do have a lot of extra time on my hands, lol. Just moved to a new area, work nights, started my TII swap project and I figured while all of this **** is off might as well make it pretty.

And I didn't do much, if any of this, by hand. I busted out my trusty Black & Decker Wizard (dremel-style, but cheaper).

A buddy of mine with an FD recommended Eastwood's metal polishing kit (www.eastwood.com). $75 and two days later, it was at my door.

Process is basically like Classic Auto said... This is how I did it though.

Sanded everything down with an 80 grit abrasive roller on my dremel, with a bit of grinder's grease. This got the nasty cast grayish **** off. Used a small cone shaped grinder to get the tight spaces. Then I used another 80 grit cone-shaped abrasive "roller."

Do that again with a 240 grit, and then a 320 grit. Wipe it all down/clean it up with some prep-sol/acetone.

Then I changed attachments and went with a small (2") buffing wheel and some tripoli polish. After that I cleaned it up again with some prep-sol, and buffed it with some polishing compound, and a smaller buffer. Last night as I was doing the last bit of sanding (buffed/polished today) I forgot to wear a respirator/dust mask. I was hacking up black **** for a good while...

I know I could have shipped it somewhere and gotten it done, but the same could be said about the rest of my car. I'd rather have everything inside, and under the hood done by me. Just going to be a nice feeling if someone asks "where'd you get the work done?" and I can respond with "my house and garage."

All that aside from paint and body-work of course. Next up is the LIM, after I clean up the plenum, of course. :angry: In the mean time I've gotta clean up my engine bay then drop in my TII motor (it's just about stripped now). After that it's haltech time...

Thanks for the kind words.

James

 

Damn!! NICE WORK!!

And yes, this is my first attempt at polishing. I got kind of tired of the sanding after the 320 grit, and didn't really feel like going out and getting any 600 grit to do any more by hand, or with the tool.

 

Looks good so far.

Takes too long for me to do though.
I just pay someone else to do it

 

I used a buffer from Harbor Frieght. Big buffer. Then you can buy these Lubs that you put on the buffing wheel. The lubs come in several grits. 80 gritt, 220 and so on. No sandpaper.

Here is a pic of mine.

 

Baaaaaa, people with money...........

:0)

How is the car coming along?

 

http://www.jestcoproducts.com/buffing_compounds2.html

There is the comp[nay I ordered from.

 

wow looks really nice spot skater i know that **** takes alot of work and youve done a wonderful job congrats!

 

I saw a TII recently with manifolds that looked just as shiny and natural as any polished ones I'd ever seen...

and all he did was brush the dirt off them and spray them with this 1200 degree high temp paint that costs maybe $5 a can from Salvo auto parts.

It's called Bright Beauty, High Heat
Comes in a spray can with plain looking white label and black and orange letters.
I haven't found it in any other local stores (Autozone, Advance, Pepboys, Walmart) but those do sell another similarly named brand that is NOT the same thing.

Anyway.. it's an option for those of you who have neither time nor money to spend making things look pretty. Like I said, this costs less than $10 and takes one evening (a few minutes to clean and spray, a couple hours to dry..) and it looks great. I'll see if I can get pictures later.

 

the first time I wanted to shine anything I did just that but the bad thing with paint is it WILL come off unless you use some sort of car paint or something. Now I have my manifold ceramic coated and it looks as good as if someone polished it and it's got the heat protection of the ceramic coating

 

honestly!!! how the hell!?!?!?!
i try this and ill i do is either turn the buffer wheel black or when i used the dremel tool i would put goudges in the alluminum???
WTF am i doing wrong?

 

Read the process classicauto and I wrote.

It's not that hard, just very time consuming.

 

You guys and your polishing... you all got a ******* disease...lol. I wish i had the patients...

You have to wear sunglasses when looking at Wanklers engine bay ...

 

Which one?