Polishing upper intake

95five-oh · Jan 13, 2007

I have a explorer/gt-40 upper and lower that i picked up a few months back and i want to polish the upper before i install it. What will i need to do this? types of sandpaper, drill bits, etc. Thanks fellas.

95strokerPSU · Jan 13, 2007

Here's the website that I followed when I did mine...
http://darkside351.tripod.com/mustang50world/id19.html

The only thing this website doesn't tell you is that you need a drill that spins at least 1500rpm. I just picked up a Dewalt 2500rpm and will be going over my intake again tomorrow.

Be prepared for it to take a long time if this your first polishing attempt and all you have is sand paper, compounds and a drill. I have well over 40 hours into mine. I would do about 1 to 2 hours a night and had a tv and dvd player set-up in the basement so I could watch movies as I worked. Helped the time go by.

Good luck and post pics when you're done.

95five-oh · Jan 13, 2007

95strokerPSU said:
Here's the website that I followed when I did mine...
http://darkside351.tripod.com/mustang50world/id19.html

The only thing this website doesn't tell you is that you need a drill that spins at least 1500rpm. I just picked up a Dewalt 2500rpm and will be going over my intake again tomorrow.

Be prepared for it to take a long time if this your first polishing attempt and all you have is sand paper, compounds and a drill. I have well over 40 hours into mine. I would do about 1 to 2 hours a night and had a tv and dvd player set-up in the basement so I could watch movies as I worked. Helped the time go by.

Good luck and post pics when you're done.

cool man thanks for the link....jeez thats way longer than i thought it would take. would u say its worth it or better to just paint it a more attractive color?

blksn955.o · Jan 16, 2007

I sanded mine down with a dremel, grinding wheel, hand sanding with 60-120grit. With the exploder intake I cut the tab off the front end of the upper and cut lines in to help clean it up.

I got it to the 120 and 160 or 180 point in some spots and decided to get it powdercoated instead as keeping it polished would suck.

ALMOST STOCK · Feb 4, 2007

95five-oh said:
I have a explorer/gt-40 upper and lower that i picked up a few months back and i want to polish the upper before i install it. What will i need to do this? types of sandpaper, drill bits, etc. Thanks fellas.

The site that 95strokerPSU posted was a write-up I did for the owner of that site about 6 years ago. I have since changed a few things so that it’s not nearly as time consuming as what I wrote 6 yrs ago.

I now go with a drill that turns about the 2500 rpm as B]95strokerPSU[/B] suggested with 100 grit sand paper, followed by either 150 or 180 grit and then onto 220 grit sandpaper. I then use a Nylon wheel that fits into a drill and that I feel does the sanding of 360 grit sand papers. I then use an Emery Compound on a Ventilated flap buffing wheel which removes all the fine scratches by the Nylon wheel. Next is the Tripoli compound on a Spiral Sewn buffing wheel a for buffing and the last thing I use is the White Rouge on a Spiral Sewn or Canton Flannel buffing wheel.

I just finishing doing my GT-40 using this method and I spent about 26 hrs total doing both the upper and lower if that give you any idea of how much time I’ve cut out from doing my stock intake about 7 yrs ago, which I think was about 16 hrs just for just the upper.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

trav_19 · Feb 4, 2007

wow that looks great i want the look but dont want the headache lol how much do you charge lol

ALMOST STOCK · Feb 4, 2007

trav_19 said:
wow that looks great i want the look but dont want the headache lol how much do you charge lol

Thank you!

I made up my mind once I was through polishing that intake I'd give up polishing.

I think I've done enough polishing for one person .
View attachment 405773

trav_19 · Feb 4, 2007

wow that engine is beautiful!!! i would carry pictures of that thing in my wallet!!!!!

ALMOST STOCK · Feb 4, 2007

Thanks again for the complement.

99FiveOh · Feb 5, 2007

You can do the polishing without all the grits of sandpaper. You can start with 80, then jump to 320 and buff with Tripoli/Sewn section wheel. Then follow up with a loose section wheel(fluffy one) and white rouge. After which you'll have a mirror chrome like shine. Most people will swear it's chrome.

Doing the open areas is always cake work, it's the small crevises and recesses that really show one's talents. Eastwood.com and Caswellplating.com are both good resources for polishing tools, supplies and how-to.

Oh, and another tip for anyone who wants to polish painted/powder coated parts, go to the parts store and buy a can of "Aircraft Finish Remover". That stuff will eat most any finish off in minutes!

ALMOST STOCK · Feb 5, 2007

The_Mustang said:
You can do the polishing without all the grits of sandpaper. You can start with 80, then jump to 320 and buff with Tripoli/Sewn section wheel. Then follow up with a loose section wheel(fluffy one) and white rouge.

So you’re saying go directly from 80 grit sand paper right to 320 grit sand paper and nothing in between is that right?
But if it takes you 5 X’s as long to sand out those 80 grit sanding marks you left by using 320 grit sandpaper what have you gained in time and bottom line isn’t that what’s it all about... time?

I’ve tried and use Spiral Sewn, Loose Section and Canton Flannel for the final polishing, and if you’ve done much polishing you know yourself at any given day; something that worked yesterday doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work today.
When using any compound or buffing wheel it’s all about what works best that day or that week. Weather plays a big part in how compounds work along with the buffing wheel you use that day.
But then again that’s just $.02

99FiveOh · Feb 6, 2007

I've been polishing for a few years now and a 320 5" disc stuck on to a 5" drill sanding pad will easily take out the 80 grit scratches, try it some time and let me know your results. I too used to step my way up, then I tried jumping from 80 to 320 and it worked nicely. Doesn't take any more time, it actually saves a TON of time!

As far as compounds go, the kind of day or weather has no bearing on polishing for me. Each wheel and compound is designed for a specific task/metal. Emery compound isn't even designed for use with aluminum: http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/...UCT&iMainCat=433&iSubCat=435&iProductID=15299

It's a waste of time to use emery then go to tripoli when tripoli will do the job easily the first time. Also, for final buffing, in my experiences, the sewn section wheel leaves lines in the work where the loose section/canton flannels don't.

Everybody has their own way of doing it, as long as the results are the same, it makes no difference how we get there.

Dan95-5.0 · Feb 6, 2007

i've done alot of polishing on my car and others and going from 80 to 320 is a waste of time and sandpaper. when you use the in between grits, you spend less time on each grit and you move up to the finer grits faster and quicker.

heres a tip, only polish what you can see on the car. as nice as it looks having the bottom or even the back side of your intake polished, how ofter are you going to take it off at a car show to show it off? LOL

99FiveOh · Feb 6, 2007

Listen. If you spend say, 30 minutes on a stock intake with 80 grit, then switch to 320 and spend another 30 minutes to get into "buffable" shape, you now have one hour in prep time, add maybe 20-30 more minutes for the hard to reach areas. Not only have you saved time, but you've save sand paper in the process. I'll bet you a thousand bucks that my work will look as good as anybody's and I'd be done at least 30 minutes to an hour before because of my method.

I've wowed quite a few people after showing them that all the other grits aren't necessary. Have you ever tried to jump from 80 to 320 to see how easily 320 cuts the scratches down? This is especially true if you use grinders grease(eastwood.com), just apply some grease on the spinning disc and it will cut the scratches almost instantly. I'll post a pic of an intake I did and you'll see that it looks just as good as any other and I may have spent 6 hours on it start to finish. The biggest chunk of that time was spent eating the powder coat off.

99FiveOh · Feb 6, 2007

Not saying there's a right way or a wrong way. There's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. It's just a fun hobby and I'm glad everyone has a way that works for them. Here's one of my first intake manifolds:

95five-oh · Mar 2, 2007

The Mustang---That looks freakin' awesome.
Here's what I ended up doing with mine, sanded it down with a wire brush, cleaned it real good, 3 coats of duplicolor dark grey and 2 coats of clear. I wasnt sure what to do with the gay looking explorer plaque so i just painted the low part black and the rest grey. I really wanted to polish it but just didnt have the time and lacked the funds to send it out to a polisher. what do u guys think?

99FiveOh · Mar 2, 2007

Looks good! I say if you ever get the chance, try to polish it, it will come out very nice!

Polishing upper intake

95five-oh

New Member

95strokerPSU

Member

95five-oh

New Member

blksn955.o

ALMOST STOCK

Attachments

trav_19

New Member

ALMOST STOCK

trav_19

New Member

ALMOST STOCK

99FiveOh

ALMOST STOCK

99FiveOh

Dan95-5.0

Active Member

99FiveOh

99FiveOh

Attachments

95five-oh

New Member

Attachments

99FiveOh

Similar threads

Polishing upper intake

New Member

Member

New Member

Attachments

New Member

New Member

Active Member

Attachments

New Member

Attachments

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency