I attempted to drive black widow, but she laughed at me

My progress.. lol

S0ber, looks fantastic. Did you do that all by hand? Mine, having lived its life in the north, has corrosion all over it but a wire brush seemed to work well on that. I think wire brush + varying grits of sandpaper shoudl do the trick but I'm not sure if I should attempt this by hand. I do want a mirror-like finish.

I'm also concerned about getting into the small places. Any recs for how to sand in tiny spaces? Maybe I should buy a dremel.

Yeah all by hand, started off at I think 250grit all the way to 1000, then I put ALOT of mothers aluminum polish on it... Took me about a week or two working for like 15minutes a day, I get lazy.

bump for old times sake!! Looks good!

http://www.eastwood.com/jump.jsp?ite...ORY&itemID=434 for any buffing needs. i once polished my zx6r frame, i would never do it again took all winter, but smaller parts look great. blue magic is another good polish/cleaner. as soon as the snow goes away i'mgoing to do this. i did get to put my rims back on today.

Smartest thing to do is just drop it off at the polisher.

can this method also be used to renew a polished lip on rims? Even if it has curb rash?

Not trying to sound lazy here but after you do this is there a way to make it last longer than a couple weeks, like some kind of clear coat or protectant that could be sprayed on or rubbed on??

My guess would be maybe clear engine enamel...

what kind of polish are people recommending/using? Mothers? Meguiars? also, are you using wet sand paper (the black stuff) or can you use just regular sand paper? finally, how long will you go for on each grit before stepping it up to the next finer one? a few minutes, or about an hour on each? i know i should just go and start on mine, but i'm just wondering what to expect and whether i will need to go out an buy new sand paper or not.

i bought noxol metal polish and i will begin this task tommorow

Looks like someone needs some new hood struts huh

is it possible to get mirror like look from intake manifold like tony arrafio had??by hand

Yes, polish your life out.

Nothing looks quite as good as a polished VQ30 intake manifold. If it weren't for the performance gains of the 00vi, I'd have one right now.

on the intake manifold, is the rough surface some kind of some ceramic coating? and will a grinding attachment on a drill do the trick to get rid of that? or what are the first steps to do to it before polishing begins?

The intake manifolds are sand-cast, i.e. they use wet sand as the mold and pour in the molten aluminum. So the surface of the casting comes out rough because of the graininess of the sand. Evidently they used some large grain sand for the VQ30 upper IM, judging by the extreme roughness of the surface.

wow i started to try this way back in the day but i rubbed my finger tips off. Ha. Is there any way to speed up the process? I have air tools now. Would an air grinder work? If not ill just start over by hand.

i have a power hand sander is that going to take forever?? for the intake manifold

it takes a long time no matter what you use. And LOTS of elbow grease. TO keep it shining you have to polish it regularly.

BUMP

Ant

dang, I really want to start polishing, but i don't have my front valve cover here.

oh, WTB::: IM for polishing. any for sale? has to fit 96 (so 95-99 would work, correct?) 35 shipped

I actually may have an extra im fs soon, but it will be more than $35.

I am in the middle of my polishing job. it is a PITA to get the sand molding smooth.

Awesome thread, looks like a new weekend project for me!

i cant believe its actually still floating around here... goodluck with your project

Ant

these threads, although old, are very solid and full of good information. They always come floating to the surface every once in a while.

when you are sanding, do you sand in circular motion, or in a straight line?

straight line! never circles

k just wanted to know b4 i started

sean, what are you workin on? IM or FVC?

EDIT: Whichever one it is, post pics of progress/final results.

im going to do this next weekend...it will take a while, but with hard work comes great outcomes!....thats my smart side talking!

im going to be doing the valve cover? also might try out the mevi.

keep up the good work boys....my valve cover (front) is almost done also.

that looks awesome

i love your car! do you have any other pics?

werd, me too

I hope to begin polishing my Front Valve Cover as well as Upper Intake Manifold soon, and while I'm at it, is it worth it to take off the timing chain cover, or is that more work that I would want to get into?

to get an idea of how much engine work I have done, I'm nervous about taking off the upper IM

omg this is more work that i thought i've been doing it for 6 hours now and im no where close to being done

naples, what's your technique? are you doing the VC? i've been doing my over the past few weekends. i spray it down a little bit and then sand it with coarse metal sandpaper. every so often i'll have to take it all to the sink to rinse it down and clean it off. then go at it again.

it's almost time to switch to medium paper. i need a dremel to get into the tighter spots.

but yeah, it's a labor of love!