My first attempt at polishing

1105 · Jan 21, 2004

Today I went up to Home Depot and got a few buffing wheels, compounds, and sand paper and attacked my drivers side valve cover. Over all its not hard at all, but it takes some time and it will take some skill to get it to a perfect shine but for my first time I think they turned out pretty damn nice. Let me know what you think. Heres some pictures of before and after.

Before:

After:

VibrantRedGT · Jan 21, 2004

Much, much better. Now come do mine.

1105 · Jan 21, 2004

VibrantRedGT said:
Much, much better. Now come do mine.

you crack me up

Dan95-5.0 · Jan 21, 2004

that looks alot better. how long did it take you to do it? What grit sand papers did you use? as soon as i find a set of fox body valve cover i'm going to polish them too. to bad i live in Winnipeg where the only people who do have them for sale want an arm and a leg.

1105 · Jan 21, 2004

Let me say this first.... DO NOT start sanding them without the aid of a power sander or else you will be there all day. Thankfully my friend came over and we took his car to get my dads sander. With that said, it took me a few hours because it was the first time I've done this and I started out with too fine of a grit sand paper so that took a long time to get most of the pits out of the aluminum. START with 80 grit... because I ran them through the bead blaster weeks before, I figured I could skip the 80, and 120 and go straight to 180... boy was I wrong and I didnt buy any 80 grit while I was at the store

With a power sander (make sure it has a rubber pan on the bottom of it like a DA sander) it shouldnt really take more than an hour if you start off with the right grit paper. I'm going to be doing my pass. side cover this weekend so I'll see how long that takes doing it the right way... and I might even go back over that one on the sides to remove some pits that are still there.

Go in this order for the sand paper
80,120,180,220,320,400 and 600 if you feel like it which you probably wont. I just went over the top of the VC with 600 before I started to use the tripoli compound then the white rouge.

rickmazurek · Jan 21, 2004

Looks good man, it looks like there is a bit of swirling on it but it may just be the camera flash, but looks much better than stock. Just a few quick things I have noticed when I polish. First is that I ALWAYS, there hasnt been one exception yet, get a better result when I wet sand with the 400 before I buff. The second is that I get better results with a bench grinder with buff wheels strapped on as opposed to a drill or a dremel. And the last thing is while I am wet sanding the piece I can see a reflection of what the piece may look like when its buffed, so I always look around the piece and see if I can see any waves or dips or pits in it before I stop sanding. Just a few helpfull hints I thought I would share, if you want more you need to talk to mansozz (sp?) or almoststock, there the two local polishing gurus.

1105 · Jan 21, 2004

Yes there is some swirling in it but it was my first time ever trying to polish anything... I was suprised it turned out that good. I'm probably going to go back over the whole thing again this weekend, starting with 80, 120, 220, 320, 400, and maybe some 600, and MAYBE even 800/1000 only on the top part to give it a better shine? There is still pits left in the valve cover because I started off with 180 grit paper and didnt do it the way I was told to at first.

We have a bench top grinder (stone wheel on one side, wire wheel on the other) so will that work if I remove one of thoes and stick like a 6" buffing wheel on it? Also how do you know if you're applying too much pressure? should I just barely hold the dril on the VC and go in side to side motions or apply very little pressure to it and use the same motion? Thanks for the help and suggestions

Joes95GT · Jan 21, 2004

Actually when you bead blasted the VC's you created more work for yourself. Bead blasting and wire wheels cause more imperfections than they do help. As you said, start with an 80 - that takes everything off and/or out.

Joe

94GTLaserRC · Jan 21, 2004

First: Are those the stock covers???? If so, you are wasting your time polishing them. You cannot polish steel, only Aluminum. The stock covers are stamped steel.

Second. In that second pic of yours: You should NEVER have that intake off without some kind of cover over the ports. (Remember "my cousin vinnie", Joe Does )

Third: ...Not at your work but the fact that EVERYONE at me for polishing, then they go and do it ASK JOE, Javi, and Jose!

Good luck!
RC

rickmazurek · Jan 21, 2004

You should actually never have to go over 400 grit, almoststock says he never goes over 320 and his motor looks amazing (if I can find a pic of it I will attach one). You know your applying too much pressure if you start to get this black goop on the piece, you only need light to moderate pressure, let the compounds work for you like they are designed to do. I try and keep a steady side to side motion, but I have trued it all sorts of ways and in my experience it really doesnt matter how you move it around. The only bad thing about using a bench grinder to buff is that you cant always reach every area, on the covers though you should be able to. You have to get good at manuvering the piece around while keeping a steady pressure, its really not that hard though. And yes, take off the wire wheel or the grind wheel and hook up a 6" buff wheel and go to town. Also, take your time on each grit, I usually spend an hour or so with each grit (depending on the size and surface of the piece) before I move on, too much sanding will never hurt you in polishing. Oh, and do little sections at a time, its easier to see whats going to need more work and where it needs it if you only do small sections as opposed to the whole piece at once.

94GTLaserRC · Jan 21, 2004

Joes95GT said:
Actually when you bead blasted the VC's you created more work for yourself. Bead blasting and wire wheels cause more imperfections than they do help. As you said, start with an 80 - that takes everything off and/or out.

Joe

Actually "MY" rule of thumb is:

"the more powerful the sanding device, the higher the grit you should start with"

If you're using a powerful die grinder, you could probably take off powder coating with a 120 grit. I used 80 on my stock upper, and it ate right through the powder coat and scuffed everything.
RC

1105 · Jan 21, 2004

94GTLaserRC said:
First: Are those the stock covers???? If so, you are wasting your time polishing them. You cannot polish steel, only Aluminum. The stock covers are stamped steel.

Second. In that second pic of yours: You should NEVER have that intake off without some kind of cover over the ports. (Remember "my cousin vinnie", Joe Does )

Third: ...Not at your work but the fact that EVERYONE at me for polishing, then they go and do it ASK JOE, Javi, and Jose!

Good luck!
RC

1. Thoes are the Fox valve covers like the ones Mike has on his car.

2. If your telling me about that... I'm glad you didnt see it with the valve cover and intake off with nothing covering them... I usually have a shirt over them when I'm doing other work not on the car but didnt today.

3. I've never laughed at you for polishing just wanted to clear that up RC

Thanks for the help Rick... I think I was applying too much pressure because I was getting a black film. Also, what do you use to get in tight areas (like where the bolts go)? Do you get a tapered buffing bit and use that or something else? I'm learning on my valve covers before I move up to bigger things like my intake so hopefully by time I get done, I should be really good.

Also, does anyone know whos car has that Cobra intake on it that almost looks like it was chromed? Thats the goal I'm working to get with my polishing skills and want to know how its done.

94GTLaserRC · Jan 21, 2004

Are Fox VC's Aluminum.??

When I say "Laugh" I dont really mean "make fun of", I mean more like people harassing me for the bling bling!

RC

1105 · Jan 21, 2004

yep.. the fox VC's are aluminum. You should pick yourself up a pair and polish them. I got mine for 20 bucks from another stangnet member on here

Slow5.0 · Jan 21, 2004

VibrantRedGT said:
Much, much better. Now come do mine.

And mine too
Looks good

OinkAodeOink · Jan 22, 2004

man you remove that intake so much its going to fall off..
j/k, Looks good dude!
Spray em with clear, so they stay that way

rickmazurek · Jan 22, 2004

I personally use a dremel with either a felt buff tip, cloth buff wheel or tapered buff tip depending on the size and tightness of the area. The shine isnt as great, but I figure that in a tight area that nobody can hardly see, as long as its shining it looks good. As to the cobra intake, that would either be mine or one other guys, I cant remember his name. But I will post up a couple pics I found for ya. The first pic is a very old picture of mine, I have since taken it back off the car and redone it as my polishing "skills" improved. The second one, I cant remember whos it is, but damn its nice.

urban96 · Jan 22, 2004

that looks good

1105 · Jan 22, 2004

yes, that second picture is the one I was talking about how do you get aluminum to look like that???

mike, I do have it off a lot but theres no other way to do what I need to do with it on. I was hoping thoes 94/95 covers would clear my heads but they dont so I'm stuck taking it off and putting it back on for now. I'm going to do both covers this weekend and hopefully be done with them for good besides a good widedown every now and then.

94GTLaserRC · Jan 22, 2004

1105 said:
yep.. the fox VC's are aluminum. You should pick yourself up a pair and polish them. I got mine for 20 bucks from another stangnet member on here

I thought the VC's from the foxes didnt clear SOMETHING on our cars

ANyway, remember I have those knock-off chromers which look nice, it's just that I needed new gaskets before I put them on. For now tho, Im sticking with the Painted stockers.

RC

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