poslished intake manifold pictures...

[Nevin]

Well fellas, sometimes when I get bored, I get a little crazy. On my probe I hd bunch of polished stuff, and I really like the look of it. I'm trying to decide whether or not to leave this manifold polished, or to chrome it. Polished looks GREAT, but it's very high maintenance. Chrome also looks very great, but costs more, and I don't have the satisfaction of knowing that I did it myself. Also, when you chrome something, it just takes on whatever surface is there to begin with, so if I DO decide to chrome, I'll still need a finish like this anyways. I am a very hands-on kind of guy, so I get a good feeling when I get something done and it turns out better than I expected. Once I get it all done, I'll make my final decision on which route to take.

That said, he are some photos of a spare IM that I recently purchased for just this purpose.

The pictures kind of glare, (duh, it's polished) but if you bear with me, it'll all be worth it.
Here is the side that has not been done.


Cleaning up and deburring some casting marks, smoothing everything out so it has good curves.


More of the same...


What it looks like when it's done. Well... done-ish. There is some final polishing left.


Before and after.


Another shot.


Here's a decent front shot.


So, curious to know what you all think. I for one, like how it looks, and just may decide to put this on the car when I do some maintenance things come springtime. Can't wait to get it all done though, and then sit back and take a look at it.

Also, I hope the pictures work, this is the first I've posted pictures here in a while! Enjoy.

Also, here is a picture of the probe's enginebay all fingerprinted and dirtied up, but it at least lets you know what I'm talking about.



That's that!

[SuberNatural]

Wow man, thats pretty sharp looking

[Mike621]

I think polished is a good look. I had thought about doing the same for mine.

Edit: The only problems I really see is the fact that it would look really odd with the plastic garnish and the engine cover.

[Nevin]

It would just make it seem so... VIP, I think. Which I like!

The probe has a blue thing going on under the hood, but the Subaru is going to be shiny, or black. I think it will look good once I get things how I'd like!

[YourConfused]

How many hours did it take for that half? It looks great btw!

[Nevin]

Originally Posted by Mike621

Edit: The only problems I really see is the fact that it would look really odd with the plastic garnish and the engine cover.

I'm thinking of ways to overcome that myself. The middle piece will look fine, I think, but the grey of the H-6 cover... Hmm, it's hard to say. I'll think of something. I could just sand smoothe it and paint it chrome?

[ensteele]

What is the process of polishing it and how long did that take to do? It does look good.

[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!