poslished intake manifold pictures...

[94SubieSVX]

Reading this thread, I was wondering if anybody ever polished/buffed the hell out of stock SVX wheels?

[ensteele]

I saw a set of wheels that someone said that they had done that. They were beautiful. They looked as good as the manifold did. If someone had a bad wheel, they could try it and find out if that is the case.

[WestCoastSVX]

Maybe a stupid question, but what's involved in removing the intake manifold?

I'm not a mechanic but I'm learning as I go with the SVX (did my own spark plugs).

I actually have another issue I need to fix down there (broken hose from a PCV valve replacement go awry) and this polishing looks like it might be fun to do too.

Is it just loosen some bolts and lift the thing off? Are there some gaskets or anything that will probably need to be replaced?

[TomsSVX]

you will need a pair of intake gaskets... but here is the tricky part. Unless you unbolt it from the heads rather that the secondary runners, you will need to work your way though tons of vacuum lines...etc. I would try and remove the entire intake off the heads

Tom

[Johnybeas]

bump... nevin you interested in polishing mine???

[Nevin]

Yeah, I'd give it a whirl if you like. You'd better have a spare, cause it'll take a couple of free evenings to do it, so turnaround isn't super fast. Maybe like 10 days from when you send it til when I'm done-ish...

But yeah, shoot me a PM if you're interested.

[Myxalplyx]

Nev,

Nice work! Wish I commented when you first did it instead of being the usual lurker I am on the forums. The before and after shots are astounding.

[svxash]

Any pics of it installed?

[Nevin]

Kev, thanks for the comment! As to having installed pictures, no, I do not have any.

It (or one like it) will be getting installed sometime over the winter when I do some other things to the car as well... I'll probably be installing it as well as a set of phenolic spacers, UDP, TB-MAF intake tube, and some other things.

So, hopefully I'll actually have some DECENT progress pictures, lol.

[Johnybeas]

hey nevin, just so you know I haven't forgotten about your offer and such. I still plan to do it, money has just been tight and time for projects has been slim. I plan to still get this from ya and to install phenolic spacers and get it coated too... so just fyi I'm still interested.

[subbieatnz]

Looks good. makes me want to do mine lol

[Chuckles]

I've hashed a lot of this over in my mind, your work is interesting, but will it come off too shiny, too personal, or somehow detract from the engines other areas. That engine bay will need to be very clean, wouldn't you end up needing to do the Valve covers and pulleys too? It seems that Summit and a few other places sell pretty cheap powder coating solutions if a person were interested in perfecting the art, but you need an oven you'll never cook in again. Me thinks Pawn shop?

[Nevin]

Originally Posted by Johnybeas

hey nevin, just so you know I haven't forgotten about your offer and such. I still plan to do it, money has just been tight and time for projects has been slim. I plan to still get this from ya and to install phenolic spacers and get it coated too... so just fyi I'm still interested.

Hey! Yeah, that's fine. I haven't done any work on it since anyway, lol. However, I'm getting a new pad for my sander this week and planning on working on it after that! Just let me know!

And yes, I know this is not everyone's taste. It DOES look good though, and I am anxious to get a polished IM on the car and take a few pictures.

[Nevin]

Ok, FINALLY finished this thing tonight, and took some pictures, dont-cha-know. Is it on the car yet? Well, no, but still... progress is progress.

Here's what it looked like when I started tonight. A bit frosty when I took it out of the trunk, so I let it warm up a bit and got to it!



I actually did some on it last night too, got the other side even at least.

This is the difference between being done with the sander, and going on to doing it by hand. The DA is great, but doing it by hand is the only way to finish if you want to get rid fo the swirl marks. Both sides are 1500 grit, but the left is by hand AFTER doing 1500 with the sander.



Here are some more random ones...



That is 1500 THEN #0000 steel wool. The steel wool really cleans it out and breaks down the rub marks.

Getting closer...






And finally the finished product with the cover on just to give an idea of being installed...



I had buffed it once in this photo just using mothers and my little handheld buffer, but expect it to be shinier when it's all done! lol

Anyway, just thought I'd post some progress pictures. Hope you all enjoyed.

[Freeman]

Omg wow that looks amazing! You need to paint the engine cover now though.. It looks like dump lol! Still, that's amazing work and I'm very envious..