got a new intake plaque. help sanding and painting.

[fivespeedsteed]

so i found an explorer intake plaque for 10 dollars and some change shipped on ebay. ive already drilled out the 2 holes to make it like mine, but its kinda in bad shape, it has some corrosion looking stuff on half of it and the black on the inlay is kinda weak. what grit paper should i sand it with? i was just going to sand everything, top part and the inlayed part and then spray it black and polish off the top part and clear it all plenty of times. what would you do?

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

I would hit it with 320, prime it, then paint it.

 

[fivespeedsteed]

is 320 grit too rough? i dont want to nessicarily paint the silver parts silver, i want to just buff them and make it all uniform

 

[stykthyn]

320, then progressively move up to 1000 to make it pop.

of course if you post a pic of the problem areas we might be able to help you more.

 

[Bobafett123]

I used on my 5.0 HO intake plaque was my handy rotory tool and a nice wire wheel it stripped off all the old paint and took off the oxidation ! looked polished and clean then I painted the recessed areas with high temp ford Blue engine paint !

 

[BK_CAULEY]

320 to rough? no.. 1000 OMG are you trying to put a show car job on it? lol

 

[fivespeedsteed]

is what i got so far. i ended up using something rougher than 320 and a screwdriver to get the black in the inlay out. so now im gonna get the ridges the screwdriver made out and do it all with 320. then either polish the top part or paint it silver and then paint the inlay black. it was all corroded on one side and took a ton of sanding to get it to where it is.

 

[BK_CAULEY]

mine

 

[fivespeedsteed]

oh hey that looks good with most of it black. hmmmm...

 

[stykthyn]

1000 OMG are you trying to put a show car job on it? lol

 

[89lxsport50]

Just spray it with some paint stripper. Clean off the stripper, then paint it. Using a sanding block sand the paint off the raised parts. Only sand in one direction to get a brushed effect. That's how I restored my stock plate, and it came out great. Make sure you use high heat paint.

 

[SVT32VDOHC]

I used 320 to sand down sheet metal when I repaint and clear cars. It is not too rough for the intake plaque. You can move finer from 320. That is just a start.

 

[LiquidGT]

The spray on aircraft paint stripper would work well for the inset part, just spray that stuff on and hit it with a water hose and the paint is gone.

Here is my Explorer intake.
View attachment 315564

 

[MAC'n89Blckstng]

I had mine sandblasted, then I taped off the raised parts sprayed the inside black and then 320'd the raised parts and then cleared the whole thing so it doesn't oxidize. Best way to do it imo.

 

[Mustang928]

Are you trying to restore it?

 

[fivespeedsteed]

Are you trying to restore it?

probably. i mean i wouldnt be sanding it if it was in good shape. you mean the factory color scheme? yes.

yeah i forgot about paint stripper, i should have used that to get it all off. oh well. i think im just gonna sand in the inlay, and then 320 the whole thing, then spray it black and sand her again. shouldnt need primer for the inlay part, and then clear it.