I polished my valve cover this past weekend it took like 4 hours. i did the valve cover, A/C lines, bolts and all the brackets that hold up the various hoses and what not. It's tiring and painstaking as hell but I wanna see my intake manifold shiny as my valve cover. I found some old threads about some people who paid $500 to have theirs done. it ain't that serious to me but if someone else has done it themselves i'll be encouraged to do it too. plus I need something to do next sunday.

how do you polish it?

Post how you did it. Thanks!!!seriously

you mean the valve cover cuz i haven't done the intake manifold yet i was trying to see if anyone else had done it to inspire me to do it.

I'd like to know how to do both.

first you gotta buy some stuff
-wetsand paper from 400 grit to 1000
-steel wool pad
-some aluminum polish
-some rags
-lots of energy and lots of time

***make sure you remove your valve cover and any brackets which may get in the way. also you can sand these brackets down to metal and polish them too.****

Start with some really course sandpaper depending on how dirty you engine is. mine was real dirty. sand it till it's pretty much silver in color ( this is pretty much till all the filth is gone) then move on to a medium grit sandpaper this time sand perpendicular to the first sanding, sand until all deep scratches or pores are gone. then do the same with the 1000 grit paper sand across the valvebody until you have somewhat of a mirror you will still see some minor scratches but thats alright. next use the steel wool pad to do some "pre polishing" this will help make some of the scratches disappear. now proceed to rub the polish on like car wax leave on for like two minutes and scrub off vigorously. if you don't get discouraged and you keep goin it'll look sooooooo shiny. its like you get rewarded the more time you spend on each sanding step the better it comes out. mine looks like a mirror (but my arm feels like $h!t)
hopes this helps you can email me with any questions.

oh and i forgot...with the first grit sand across the engine (left to right) then with the medium grit do up and down and then go back to left right for the last finishing sand. this process will help in leaving less scratches. also you may want to remove some plugs and stuff out of the way so you dont cut your hands up. it also makes it easier to get to the left side engine bay (if you wanna do that part too??)

anyone with pictures???

Chris

I thought maybe you could use a power sander or a buffer or something.

do you have any pictures?

heres some pics of some guys on the org. he paid like $500 to have his done. My valvecover looks just as good as his and that is what i want my intake manifold to look like. it aint worth $500 bucks though. http://integra.vtec.net/geeser/megam...max_engine.jpg

actually now that i look at it again my valvecover is better polished than his. mine is polished on the left side and bottom front side too. His manifold is HOT though. i think i might do what he did to his plastic spark plug cover.

I've started polishing mine & used an orbital sander for the 1 stage of polishing. (I also covered my pop charger so dusty crap wouldn't clog the filter element.) I also tried using a Dremel (rotary) tool to polish the tight spots but I don't think I've quite found the right attachment. It's starting to look good but it's a long process. Like they say, it's a labor of love. One day, I'll have to do it properly by removing the whole upper plenum to get to all the tight spots.

Yeah...but is yours polished under the plastic cover

http://imageevent.com/1max2nv/nissanvalvecovers

Wowzers!!!
Did you polish it yourself??

Which .org member did this? I'd like to do it myself...

Thanks

JeffK. But I don't think he did it himself...I think he purchased the polished parts from someone (like or maybe even 1Max2Nv himself).

I know people who are working on polishing the valve cover themselves, and its a lot of work.

Hell no!!! Unless I don't have a job and I don't feel like using my hands for few months. All professionlly done with proper tools. When it comes to polishing, having the right tools and experience goes a long way.

So let me get this striaght. If i use alot of different types of sandpaper and then some metal polish and about 10 hours of work i can get my intake manifold to look somewhat like this: http://integra.vtec.net/geeser/mega...amax_engine.jpg ?

If i can please say yes because i really really want to do it.
And btw how safe is to do this? i agree about covering the popcharger so that no tiny metal peices are sucked in after the car is turned on. I just want to know how polished the manifold will look if it is done by myself. alex could you post some pics of your homemade job?

did mine myself and it took a weekend to finish. Just ask any guys here on LongIsland or in Queens, they can vouch for my work

Ant

Is there any HOW2 section anywhere so i dont mess anything up? And do you have any pics of your polishing job? Thanks