Manifold cleaning...shines!
 

Welp i finally got around to popping the hood and dealing with the 12 years of mess under there. It was reaaaally bad. I decrapped alot of things, and went out and bought some things to try and polish up my pitted and grime filled manifold.
heres what it looked like before i got to work on the manifold and metal pieces.
BEFORE
I went to good old menards and got a fine Brass brush, some grade 2 steel wool and some nice heavy duty latex gloves.Also pi cked up some Alum Polish(mothers) but that was a waste of 5 bux.
I went to work with the steel wool and scrubbed for an hour or so, making sure not to scrath anything else and trying to keep the wool some what containted with towels covering around the manifold, occasionally stopping to empty them and shake them out. i then scrubbed with the brass brush,which really did a nice job if you ask me. I finished it off with the mothers alum polish, but ireally dont think that did its moneys worth. i also used the wool on other metal pieces on the air conditioning lines and so forth, and they are shining very nicely now as well.
Heres the finished product:
Shiney

An hour or so later, i had the whole engine bay looking nice and orderly.
[IAll done

It took a day to do but i can finally pop the hood of my car and be proud. Im really glad i bought a project car, it makes me feel really good to be able to see my progess, not just have it handed to me. The only thing im afraid of is soon im gonna run out of free things to do :rolleyes:

P.S. All of you at reading are seeing the transformation of my headlights thanks to mike!!!!! Cant wait to get them back!
take care,
phil

Re: Manifold cleaning...shines!
 

Uh... want to waste about 6 hours? I know a way to do that.

Also know anyone who does fiberglass work? I want to redo the interior trim in my car.

L

Very nice Phast!!

I like that look better than the smooth polished intake. I'm going to need to do that to mine because the previous owner has painted it a slightly lighter silver. Looks bad. :(

Phil, you just need to paint your powersteering reservoir and it'll look almost new! :)

- Rob

Looks really nice Phil! That brass brush did most of the work? I think that looks like the way I will clean mine... I didn't quite like how chromey the coated manifold looked... your's (now) is much more to my liking.

Keen eye Rob. I didn't even notice the paint chips on the reservoir... Phil probably didn't really want us to either.:D

I noticed because I dinged mine while taking it off to replace the O-ring. Seriously though, the engine looks GREAT, with the exception of that one part. A few minutes and a can of spraypaint later and you're SET man! :D

- Rob

PS: The only thing bad about bare aluminum is that it oxidizes fairly quickly. I know you can coat it with some clear sealant, but it tends to turn yellow over time. Maybe there's some new stuff out there? I'll check my car craft magazines.... those guys are always cleaning their intakes. I actually sandblasted my intake for my Charger's 383 when I was 17. Look fantastic, a lot like Phil's intake. It's just hard to keep it looking that nice. But I think we might be able to find a solution. :)

What a great job! I'm going to have to find the time to do mine, after this long cold snowy winter mines a mess, regards dave

Jumping on the bandwagon, I too think it looks great, even inspiring, gotta get me a brush.

That looks awesome, Phil! The brass wire brush did most of the shiny on the intake? I've tried steel wool on mine and it did basically nothing. I'll have to get myself a fine brass brush. I don't think I've seen a P/S resevoir yet that didn't have the paint chipped by the bolts. :)

I don't think mine is chipped... I'll have to check when I get home though.:D

I hope it doesn't oxidize that fast... what is it coated with originally, anything?