To Polish or To Powdercoat...
 

that's my question. :)

I just got an Efini y/x-over pipe and I can't decide if I want to polish it or leave it rough cast and powdercoat it black. My 7 is down right now but I want to install it when I put everything back together, so that's in roughly 2 weeks or so.

I fucking hate powder coated stuff...

Me like the *bling*

I agree -- *bling bling*! Besides, if you powdercoat it it will look just like the stock one, or is that what you are going for??

Well, I stripped the silver coating off the stock elbow, so it's black now. I just thought it would look symetrical for the x-over pipe to look the same. Well, if I polish the x-over pipe, I guess I could send the elbow off to be chrome plated...

I still would go polished. I have a polished y-pipe and a black elbow (94 model) and I think it looks great. Also if you ever decide to upgrade your intercooler and/or intake pipes it will look much better polished.

if you're near atlanta, i do powdercoating, i can do that pipe for $20

If it were me I would spend the 20 bucks and powdercoat it. Polishing just seems to be a pain to get that nice luster you are looking for. Since your elbow is already black (as is mine), it would make it look more symetrical in my opinion.

M-P

Polished parts with colored hose/connectors may look groovy when you pop the hood, although I doubt if the guy doing the smog station visual inspection will be as impressed as your friends. "hum.... just where exactly did that precat go?".

I do powdercoating as well... not commercially though.

No emissions tests in Alabama.

Polish the pipe it will look much better.

I bet if that ass in your avatar was powder coated, you wouldn't. :D :hitit:

i think polish is beautiful!

forget all that stripping the stock elbow. jason on the store has a greddy elbow for sale 99.00:D more bling. polish it. it's not that hard since it's pretty flat. kvn

you got that right! :boink:

Who has the Black FD with the Gold powdercoating? Coolduke? I forget... It's SO BADASS!! You'll really appreciate it when you see it. :)

Yeah, the black FD with gold powdercoat is AMAZING!

im all for the bling

as long as i dont gotta do it, i vote polish that bad boy to a mirror :)

Both are a waste of time or money. Leave it alone. :)

you know how we FD's do it. we got money to burn. :devil:

Since the X-over pipe has a smoother casting and the Y section has a really rough casting surface, I think I'm going to go half and half.... The X-over pipe will be easier to sand and polish so I'm going to polish it and powdercoat the Y section black... how does that sound?

Well, I'm out of shit to mod and I'm sure as hell not sticking a square-ass body kit on my car.. Besides there's something to be said for a nice clean engine bay.. :D

Well, I polished the X-over pipe today... man, I am proud of myself!!! This thing looks awesome! It took me about 6 hours to complete it. It looks so good, I'm now thinking about polishing the Y-pipe also.

Don't chrome it - attracts TOO much heat

I jet-hot coated mine. www.jet-hot.com
http://bellsouthpwp.net/f/l/flybye/y4.JPG
http://bellsouthpwp.net/f/l/flybye/y1.JPG

You still see the texture of the metal underneath the coating, though. If I did it again, I probably would have sanded it down a bit, but it still looks good. they also have black, and the stuff i super easy to clean. You can spill anything on it and it will just wipe off.

The GOOD thing about it is that it also coats the inside smoothing out the interior of the tube. This damn thing was making me overboost! Efini - :bigthumb:

I edited your poll ;)