[Nevin]

That sir, is confidential...






















Ha! Yeah right.

I use pneumatic tools like a die grinder, dual action 6" sander, uhh..drill?

Basically, the concept is start with a coarse grit- something like 40 grit, and get everything smoothe. Then go to 80 grit, then 180, 220, 300, 400, 600, 600 wetsand, 800, 800 wetsand, 1000 dry/wet, 1200, 1500, 2000, 3000, and finally polish it with a good aluminum polish and sit back and admire your work. I also have 4" Chicago Pneumatic buffer that works WONDERS and my detailing business recently started using Britemax products. They have an aluminum cleaner that works awesome, and then a aluminum shine that really are VERY hard to beat. That's what I use, everytime.


The most IMPORTANT thing is to take your time, espescially if it's your first time. Make sure that everything is smoothe and free of grit marks before you go on to the next step. However, the nice part is that once you get to a certain point and you see marks in the finish, you can always go back and knock it down again. When I first started I went to 1000 grit to see what kind of blemishes were in it still, then went back down to 180 to get them out. The surface is very easy to work with, but you just have to make sure not to be too aggressive, or you'll be going back down and dong it later.

This half of the manifold took me about..5 hours maybe? Probably the longest I've spent on a project yet, but I would also say that it is far and away the best finish I have yet done. I imagine that if I did an entire one at one sitting and had all the things I needed (and some refreshing Mt. Dew) I could probably knock one out in about 6 hours.

That's a long time, you might say. I say... you can never spend too long doing something the right way!