I have a S4 TII. I want to polish my UIM to a beautiful shine....how do i do this? Is this something anyone can do? Is there a writeup somewhere?

 

first thing you will need lots of patience, at first its kinda fun but a few hours later you are going to ask yourself "what did i get my self into" you are going to need lots of sandpaper like 200,600,1000.... the finer the sandpaper the more shine you will get you also need a dremel to get in all the hard to get places after you are done sanding you will need to buff it out, if you dont have a buffer you can buy buffing wheels with drill attachment from places like www.eastwood.com

 

send it to surgemonster ahahha

 

Exactly...it is time consuming though and requires patience. Sanding/high temp silver paint is also a good idea for a nice look that won't take very long. I had mine sandblasted for a clean OEM look.

 

I started on this actually monday. best thing to start with is a brass wire wheel attachment for your drill. I bought one at lowes for 3 bucks. It gave it a nice shine just from the wheel. But yes sanding is a bitch. Try the brass wheel. You might be happy with how good it comes out just from that.

 

Not trying to be an ***, but there's a really good write up on how to polish metal on another forum: http://www.nopistons.com/forums/inde...showtopic=8827

 

Takes too much time. I paid someone to polish my manifolds. Depends how much time you have and how much you value it.

 

Unfortunately, If you are to follow this route you will have blackened Manifolds by next season. You will get a shiny appearance but not for long due to oxidation. I ended up glassbeading than clearcoating my Manifolds after doing the aforementioned.

 

You should use a sealing alloy polish, and polish it very regularly, to keep it shiny and from oxidizing.


But it's definately somewhat of a hassle when you can't reach underneath the UIM to get the polish there all the time.

Clearcoating lasts much longer with less maintenance, it's up to you how you want to do it.

 

Well I used a dremel for mine and LOT AND LOTS of sand paper barrels and papers.

I started with 200 grit on the barrel to start smoothing out all the HUGE bumps and rough spots.

I then used a conical grinding stone to get into the small areas between the runners.

Then used 300 to help smooth out any "mistakes" and get a more uniform base.

Then I started getting lazy.

I should have done a 550,700,1000,1200+wet but I just did 500 alot and then 1000 wet.

I then tried to use the buffing wheel for a drill but it just doesn't have enough RPMS.
I used my buff side of my grinder and it came out 10x's better and QUICKER.

Here are some pics of mine.


You can tell that I got a little lazy and didn't try very hard on the seams and hard to get at places.

But then again look at well this thing blings as is.