Oh man, thats going to be a ton of work, start sanding and polishing. You could just get an endurashine intake, sell the old one to help the cost. here is my endurashine intake. its kind of chromy but very easy to clean, wish I would have gotten endurashine heads too
Mark
I'd rather polish it than powder it, unless you're engine bay is too shiny or you have blacked out parts or matte finished block and head covers, but I'd rather polish it, and first you'd have to sand it with the 600 sandpaper... it might be a hell of a work, but at the end it might look awesome and clean.
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''Every car has a great quality, is not the hands that build it, is the dedication behind it.''
That's a ton of work. if you try polishing just one, you will see how much of a deal it is to buy them already polished.
for the average guy, I think it's best to start off with sandpaper rolls (or whatever they're called) on an air grinder and the heavier grit scotchbrite discs. A huge help when using the sandpaper rolls is to load them up with "grinder's grease". it's amazing how much that stuff helps. besides that a dremel and lots of sore fingers will do the job. I usually will work my way up to about a 1200 or 1600 grit paper before I start hitting the parts with Tripoli and White Roughe compounds for the final finish
I've polished a lot of rough parts (intakes, beat up half-shafts, cast waterpumps, rear trailing arms, rims, etc), and the worst thing I ever had to do was a dual quad tunnel ram intake. I'll never touch one of those again
I'd have to agree with the others. It's a ton of work no matter how you tackle it. Then, you have to keep on polishing it for the rest of its life unless you clear coat it. I would just sell it and buy one with the endurashine finish which will clean much easier over its lifetime.
What about blasting it with some material?? Then spraying it with a product that looks like polished aluminum or chrome? How's that for vague.....LOL I'd take the easy way out.
What about blasting it with some material?? Then spraying it with a product that looks like polished aluminum or chrome? How's that for vague.....LOL I'd take the easy way out.
The ol "rattle shine" trick? Chrome in a can? Rattle can resto? Super idea! Hell of a lot easier than wearing your fingers down to the bones trying to polish it every other day.
Seriously -- Aluminum "loads" up sand paper and grinding wheels and carbide tools etc -- so if you're really "bent" on doing this - do a bit of research on the RIGHT kind of paper etc to use. There are special grit types to cut aluminum.
You ask a simple question - but it's not one with a simple answer - because you don't mention if you have any tools - air die grinders or electric die grinders... and you're going to need some "long reach" tools/heads etc because you've got hard to reach places...
If you're like some people we know <------- "we" like to "invest" in tools and equipment that we intend to use forever... If you don't have the tools already - you're going to spend more on them than the manifold would cost... so only you can answer that question. Don't forget that you have to start with roughing grits - work your way down to the finer grits - and THEN you have to polish - so you're going to need various polishing attachments - cones - and balls - and buffs and compounds etc....
Just sayin' ----- you're tackling a big job if you're not already set up for it.
Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
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Whats the best way to get an Edelbrock aluminum intake smooth to polish it?
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