ok so i am looking to spruce up the engine bay a little bit, make it look a little cleaner. i want to polish the upper plenum to a smooth, shiny finish. i am completely unaware of how to do this or if its even possible. can anyone shine some light on the subject? and if its possible, could someone give me some sort of reference as to what tools i would need and how to go about it?

 

Contact Darren at Intense Motorsports. He'll walk you through the process. You can find his site on our list of vendors..

 

there are people on this forum that do that. you send them yours and some $ and they send you a polished one. The advantage is that you dont have to do it and is less time...

 

I remember doing something like this a little while ago on my celica engine cover. I didn't do any higher tech than basic man power. Basically you'll need steel wire brush, sandpaper, fine steel wool, aluminum polishing compound, and rags for polishing.

1. Use the wire brush (i used the cup attachment for the drill) to scuff up that gritty feel to it. Break down so the gritty is gone

2. Then wet sand out your scratches

3. Use the steel wool with the aluminum polish

4. Use the aluminum polish

5. Done...shiny. Almost mirror-like if u do it well.

 

great, thanks a lot guys. i suppose i will see how much it will cost to just buy an already polished one but if its more than $50 i will just do it myself.

thanks whitecel, for the walkthrough.

 

people charge 200+ plus core exchange because a good polish takes 8 to 10 hours of work.

 

It basically takes time. And getting dirty. This is the same method I used to polish my turbo compressor housing. If you do a search in google, I think there was a site that told you how to polish aluminum. They showed how on a compressor housing. It was a mx6 or mx3 forum.

 

I got mine from Intense. :-)

 

yea i cant even find the vendor on this site. and i am sure as hell not paying $200 for something that would take me less than a day... im willing to put some work in for my whip.

 

If you do this yourself post up pics of your process & etc. If its not to hard i might give it a shot.

 

if you have never polished metal before, i think you'll quickly come to realize why its 200$ to get one done.

 

OK found the link, but apparently the guy remote linked the pics so now the pics don't work.

But yea, str8dum1 is right. You do realize, damn I might as well just pay to get it done. I think the professionals actually machine the stuff.

 

how do you mean? of course i am expecting a lot of work, but nothing thats impossible. i suppose its a matter of technique, so i will be sure to research the process thoroughly.

 

I think the hardest part about the process was getting the scratches out. I must've went from 400 --> 600 --> 1200 --> 1600 and still couldn't get out the fine scratches. Steel wool helped a lot but still didn't make it flawless.

 

hmm yea i wouldnt expect a perfect mirror finish but let me see what i can do. ill update once i find some links and references, and of course, once i begin the process.

 

I got mine done locally (southern california) did both plenum and strut bar

 

Its not hard to do, it just takes some time.

https://my350z.com/forum/repairing-and-detailing-diy/299296-my-metal-polishing-bling-bling-guide.html

 

lol i just found the very same link . thanks though.

 

that looks great, btw. i want mine to end up like that.

 

+1. looks great.