Since my motor is out, I decided to strip off all the paint on my upper plenum and jit it with some sand paper and compounds.

Here's the result after about 4hrs of work... Still needs a little more work but I think its coming along nicely.

Here I'm still getting off all the rough spots from the casting.


Here I'm perfecting the shine in a few spots




I'll be porting the plenum runners and heads tomorrow

 

hmm..pretty good job. im sure the finished product will look great

 

looks good, nice work.

 

This seems like a good weekend project I could do. Could you go into more detail on how to do this?

 

+1 and could it be powder coated?

 

Sure... you'll need:

-A fairly decent air compressor. Mine's a husky 15 gallon 150psi max that can barely keep up with a constantly running air tool. Get something better!

-Die grinder.

-Corded drill (you can do it with a cordless but you'll be going through batteries like crazy).

-A sanding flap wheel (80 grit) Availabe at any home depot or lowes.

-Ryobi polishing compound (there's different ones so make sure you get the one for soft non ferrous metals/aluminum).

-Mothers metal polish.

-Shop towels.

- 1500 and 2000 grit sand paper. (this is only necessary if you want to get really fancy with the finished product. You can skip all the grits just by using compund to get the light scratches off).

-Very IMPORTANT! Husky 2" surface preparation Kit. You'll only use one tool out of this kit and it will save you LOADS of time and that'll be the bit that has a scotchbrite-like tip.

-Bench vice (not entirely necessary but makes things a bit easier).

-Buffing wheel kit for drill/die grinder.

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Begin by clamping the plenum by one of the corners or by any 2 of the studs that stick out of the bottom (make sure not to break them).

-Take the drill and attach the flap wheel and begin to smooth out the tiny peaks and valleys in the outter surface of the plenum. You don't have to be too careful in this step since you can always fix it later.

You will see the surface begin to get smoother but it will be riddled with small scratches.

-Next take the die grinder with the scotchbrite tip and spin it at low rpm while holding the compund up to the pad, make sure you get enough, especially on the outer rim. Begin to go over the entire plenum little by little, go back and reapply cmpund about every 30 seconds or so as you want the compund to take the beating, not the bit. By this time you'll start getting a decent shimmer but it still won't be a great shine.

-Then take 1500 grit sand paper and sprinkle water while sanding all over. You can also go 2000 but you could skip that and hit it with the buffing wheel and add compund regularly. You will see a nice shine developing and from here on out the shine will be all about how meticulous you want to be.

I normally finish it off by hand with mothers and a rag.

 

It could but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of polishing it?

 

yes. I mean I would polish it to rock the polish then change it up with a color.

 

negative, it would look awesome to polish it them powdercoat it translucent black would look like turbonetics black chrome.

On a side note you have a lot more sanding to do on that plenum if you want a finish w/o visible sand swirl marks. sanding is your friend ive done several of these.

 

No one said I was done.

 

Thanks tecni, this should be in the DIY section! I am gonna give it a shot over break...

 

tecni, u should do mine for me....im local...im nismokid on of.com

 

Hey Chris,

Do you have a spare plenum?

 

I ended up getting a Craftsman Professional 25 Gallon air compressor to finish the job. I'll post up more pics tomorrow!

 

Hell yeah, in for installed pics

 

Now that you have the air compressor, get a decent pneumatic die grinder and some Tripoli compound. I've polished aluminum for many years. Sand down progressively as you did and then use the Tripoli bars. Then follow up with the white rouge bar.

Get several pads for the die grinnder, you can find them all over the net, just search for "polishing". For those hard to reach spots, I'll use a lapping compound and a felt bob.

Caswell plating is a good source for one stop shopping, but there are plenty of places out there.

The compound bars are the way to go and they go a lot further than they would appear and they do make a big difference in the shine for the metal they are designed for.

And as a fair warning, it's addicting.

 

I give you props for all the hard work and lots of elbow grease. Can't wait to see the finished product...