polishing stock intake

i polished up my stocker like 3/4 and it was awesome lookin. it was the first thing i polished and it took forever but sold for $90 on ebay . its not that tough. just search around on this board. i think most will say buy a polishing kit to start off then go from there

Overall it's not extremely difficult, but I would NOT recommend polishing an intake as your FIRST polishing project, unless you can afford to keep it off the car for awhile. I personally would just polish up the plate really nice.

RC

Start sanding with 80, 120, 180, 220, 320, and 400... Once thats done get a 3" - 4" buffing wheel and use a tripoli compound on it to remove all the scratches, then get another 3" - 4" buffing wheel and use a white rouge compound on it, then wipe it down with mothers mag and aluminum polish and you're done. I would not want to polish the stock intake... The casting is ****ty and you'll more than likely replace it anyways.

If it's aluminum it can polish! Sure if the casting is ****ty as 1105 stated then it's going to require more work no doubt.

Each and ever person whose ever sanded or polished ALUMINUM has there own method that works for them.

Some sand and sand and sand and then use Wd40 with steel wool and then use a polishing paste of a sort to do the final polishing with And then there are those who just sand from 100grit to 2000 grit and then use Mothers or other pastes polishes.

And then there are people like myself who sand with 80 or 100 grit to 320 grit sand paper and then use and old electric drill that turns about 2500 rpm with Tripoli to buff with and White Rouge to polish with to get there shine .

Bottom line there is no exact way or person who has all the answers to polishing. It's all work but not that hard of work, time consuming well that another ball game. Remember you only get out of it what you put into it and nothing more

And patience you need lots and lots of patience. something I don' have so most of the stuff I polished still looks kinda crapy. ALOMOST STOCK is a pro I've seen his web site I wanted my stuff to look just like his that will never happen with me doing it myself lol. GOOD LUCK if you try

any progress pics yet???

Do you wet sand or dry sand?

im interested too

dry sand
the intake has a coating on it which makes it really sloppy..mine does at least..its a grey weather resistant coat..anyway
i would go 80,180,400, 800 1200,,thats what i do anyway,,then use the compound...thats on open pieces..and a air r/angle ///the cracks anf crevices you need to use the gritty cmpunds,they are used on a wheel or drill,like liquid sandpaper,,there is different grits.again verry messy..the tripoli is verry hard to use to remove scratches from 400 unless your real nice w/polishing and have alot of time........believe that!!after 1200 a white compound for a tiny bit any newbie can do...then some mothers chrome polish and your in..DO NOT think your gonna polish something by hand!! its possible but you would rather push your car 10 miles w/no shoes on..
practice on a small piece and when you get the mirror shine youll get an idea of how long an intake is gonna take...i estimate an intake from 94/95 to be about 20hrs of labor ,,experienced,,,40-45 newbie,,if you dont own material,,they will cost around 100! at least!!it cost me over 250 for sanding disks alone, hook and loop discs...29-37$ a box of 100,then u need a buffer wheel 10$sears they sell 3 wheels and 5 huge bars of compound,white,tripolired,rouge,and ?brown?<<good deal...
you will need a hook loop tool that holds the paper.called a mandrel.
or....you could get a 3m scocthchbrite mandrel and use the scothbrite disks ,,they are cheaper,last longer,,easier to get into grooves,,they come in 4 different colors and grits.vry cours,course,fine,ultra fine,,,,,,ultra fine is 180 grit ..then i go to paper.they also have kits u can get from a search under polishing kits...cheaper tooo...and they sell nickel,chrome,aluminum,silver,gold plating kits...from 150-1000$ which work awsome as long as you dont need to dip anything bigger than a 20 gallon pale they include..
this book is finished good luck guys..ill be back

I'm not going to tackle the intake. I want to start on some small misc. things. An intake is wayy too extreme for a beginner i think. I found a kit with 3 sewed muslin wheels and one loose all 6" with 4 compounds the white rougebrown tripoli and 2 others and a drill bit adapter and then of course all the paper. Is this good enough to start small?One other thing do you do all of your sanding first and then apply compounds or do you sand then tripoli sand and then the white rouge? I appreciate the help man.

yes that kit is good 10 bucks..nice deal at sears..but no sandpsper..3 wheels a mandrel for the drill and 4compounds..perfect for polishing..when you see how hard the polish is your gonna wonder how the hell it works!!you may even think about grinding the bar onto the piece or using it like a crayon and color the polish on.. but dont.....the thing is you need high speed to polish and rev the cotton wheel and cut into the bar so it gets on the wheel..
do not attempt to polish untill your done sanding..its all stage from 60 grit to white compound in that order.there is 4 stages of compound then polish and 6 or 7 stages of paper..you will notice when the grit of paper your using is done doing what its capable of then move to next grit finer.the tripoli or rouge is the only compound that will take swirls out.the white is like nothing the harder the bar the less it will cut..and noneof them cut really..i mean you dont want to use them to...thats more like the thing you do after you think your done..you will be happy when you teach yourself this skill cause you will never be bored and have lots of shiny things..and its a great feeling to make something shine like that ..when it use to look scummy,,good luck

The faster the wheel, then the easier as well.
You can polish by hand but it is a lot harder and takes a lot longer. Not saying it can't be done but it requires a lot more elbow grease. Here is an intake and valve covers my friend did by hand.