whats the best and or easiest way to do it.

thanks

 

elbow grease

Brian

 

and lots of sand paper/buffing/polishing... it took me a few weeks of on and off work to sand/polish/paint a good handful of brackets/clips around the engine bay

if you have a wire wheeler thats a good start

 

pawn it off on some unsuspecting sap

 

what if i wanted just a brushed finish. would a wire wheel do the job and be done? or do i need clear coat? anyone know of any writeups or anything?

 

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htm

 

I did mine by hand and it took a very long time and I'm probably going to go back and improve it now that I know more about what I'm doing.
Pics on my cardomain page.

I'm currently working on a project for my 328, painting the center of the wheels black and polishing the lip. I put the wheels in a parts washer machine for a total of about two hours to get rid of all the brake dust, road debris, etc. Then I painted on some metal stripper and then scrubbed the clear coat/paint/primer off with a brush. Some of the paint still won't come off (damn BMW paint!) so I'm going over the lip with a metal brush bit and air tools. Then I'm going to polish with 400, 800, and 1500 wet sanding. Then you just finish the job off with rubbing/polishing compound and its a good idea to put sort of sealant on the metal since it is now exposed to the elements without paint to protect it.

 

gee, thanks pez ive been working with a wire wheel bit to get all the.. i dont kno what it is, the stuff that they put on it to kind of give it a texture... off, thenn i was gonna use sand paper similar to what u are going to use to finish it off then put some clear coat on. How many coats of clearcoat u think i should use?

 

i dont think they put anything on it to give it texture, instead it is a cast peice and is a result of the casting process.

 

best and easiest way...

send it out and have someone else do the work.

 

What Dan said.. if you don't know what you're doing, it's worth the $ to just send it off and have it done. In the time you'd spend on it, you can work at minimum wage and make more money than it would cost to have it done in short time by a professional.

 

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. You better be the type of person whou just gets bored and likes to do projects that take a lot of time because you don't want to get in the middle of it and get tired of working.

The right equipment makes a huge difference.

 

Then how come the rear valve covers don't have the same texture??

 

2 diff. types of cast !!! as far as i noticed

 

In all honestly, it looks like the front cover was cast then sand blasted, coated.

 

anyone know of a good place to send it to? thanks for the info guys

 

http://www.polishinginc.com/

 

because Nissan likes 2-4-6 more than 1-3-5.

 

hmm, maybe I could get some stuff polished just for fun.

Have you used this guy before, Dan?

 

Hmm, anyone have any other online recommendations for polishers? Where would I look for them in the phone book? Local would certainly beat shipping, but I want the best job possible for the money.

I want my intake manifold sanded smooth and then polished, and also my valve cover.