Once in a while you run across some great deal in the "for sale section" so i picked up two sets of 99 Y-pipes and with plenty of time @ the office sitting in front of the CPU and the result is *&^%$

before




after






total cost:
$165 for the used Y-pipes
$15 for assorted sand papers in different grades and Mothers finishing polish for the mirror shine.

 

Impressive work! I admire your patience. I think I'd go nuts before I got half done.

 

wow good results. can you post your steps?

 

home depot paint section has the sand papers you will need
120 grit to start---once the rough cast surface is sanded down
400 grit to even out the surface
800 grit to refine even more
2000 grit wet sanding for the final prep

and then Mothers aluminum polish from any automotive store using 100% Cotton towel for final buff. keep in mind that i don't own a buffing wheel for a even brighter shine but mothers brand sells the power ball buffing attachment for your cordless drill goes a long way.
good luck and yes I have a lot of time and time and time on my hand.

 

ok so how long about did this take you?

 

total time from start to finish i would say 8 days. spending total of 2 hours a day at it.

 

looks good! i plan on trying to get the same results on the y-pipe and all the others sometime soon...

 

wow thats a looong time! looks great though

 

Shiny...

Looks great!

 

thanks guys!!!! I also have the Greddy Elbow and the I/C pipe polished up as well.
Same process no Buffing wheel used!!!



BEFORE PICTURES

AFTER 800 GRIT!!!!!





AFTER PICTURES

 

I would not have the patience LOL

 

very good job there!

 

Looks nice Mikey.

 

lol I agree with you but you know what, I'm stuck at work after business hour and i have nothing to do and the parts are cheap as hell on the forum ........

 

thanks RX7Rage

 

great work! gives me some motivation to polish my crossover pipe... lol. thanks

 

I have been trying to polish my spare UIM for the past three years. How do you get the hard to reach places?

 

To get that level of shine on the Y pipe, you had to remove a lot of mass. The photo looks like the pipe had a pretty deep texture to you. Is there any disadvantage (or advantage) to getting rid of the extra aluminum?

 

Not at all, the bling factor far out weighs and performance factor. the amount of material removed is very minuet. Plus this is the cold side of the turbo system. Once the car is under load and in motion there is no intake temperature difference at all. Our FD intake temp is measured at the point (under the UIM)and there have been many discussion on how having a none shielded area around the LIM close to the hot side of the turbos is a greater contributing factor to actual intake temp when measured and before it actually enters the rotor housings.

 

to get all the small hard to get to places you need use a dremel tool or you will be left with no finger prints from all of the sanding of the small areas.

 

god damn that is ****ing sexy

 

Well thank you I think I found something else to take up my time. Great work

 

Can you put like a wax or clear coat to protect the shine or would you just leave it like that?

 

No clear coat, do to the high temp under the hood would discolor and flake in matter of days. I would recommend any aluminum polish/wax for the job. Keep in mind that having bare bling parts is nice but the down side of it is higher maintenance. Well worth it IMO

 

how much would you charge for just the crossover pipe?