whats a good way to polish an intake?

Click on this link HERE

Then click on Metal Polishing Tips

Paul is one of the best at polishing I have seen, so his advise is good.

Figure on 15-20 hours from start to finish..it's a tough job but worth it in the end.

I'm not going to lie to you. It SUCKS

Agreed...but again worth the effort if you do it right.

Yeah, if you are into that kind of thing I guess.

yeahhhh...didn't think you'd have much interest in shine...you're obviously more a paint guy

DMAN302 said:

yeahhhh...didn't think you'd have much interest in shine...you're obviously more a paint guy

Click to expand...

I found this paint that looks exactly like polished aluminum. Looks the same but much less time.










DAMN.......just revealed my secret. Don't tell anyone ok??

what kind?

he's speaking of sarcasm in a bottle..there are no shortcuts....or you could chrome powdercoat it. Not overly familiar with the finish product apearance though.

DMAN302 said:

he's speaking of sarcasm in a bottle..there are no shortcuts....or you could chrome powdercoat it. Not overly familiar with the finish product apearance though.

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CMON....I might have had some people wondering Chrome powder coating looks ok, but doesn't look as good as a polished piece.

Nothing does...though you must admit Dave did have some Just excellent success with his chromed aluminum parts...really came out nice I think. Real issue is...you often can't mix polished alum with chrome to much or you end up having the aluminum parts look drab and somewhat out of place...if that makes sense (probably not). I my opinion polished aluminum has a 'look' that separates it from SS and chrome and just stands out in a different way.

Yeah Dave's chrome parts look good. Chrome always looks good. But you are right about matching polished parts and chrome parts. Dave has pulled it off though. When I was at his house in October looking at his engine, the chrome parts and polished parts matched nicely.

Polished parts do have a distinct look though.

Daves car is the exception..and is exceptional IMO...individuality, like you, jeff, almoststock, stang22 and a host of others....every car is very very distinct though they all use much the same basic theme.....that being BLING

Yup, major difference! THe thing is, if you do the polishing right, you can damn near believe it's chrome. Look at ALMOST STOCK's GT40 intake. Half of it I would've sworn it was chromed if I didn't know any better.

Chrome powdercoat usually sucks. The trick with that is, the piece has to be perfectly flat to begin with otherwise it'll look like a real ****ty job. No offense to anyone who has any of it done, but you just can't compare it to real chrome like they would have you believe. Anyway, I had a bunch of spare AC brackets laying around, so I had them chrome powdercoated so I could sell them and get rid of 'em. And make a few bucks of course Here's a pic at how they ended up:



Not bad for coating! Just realize before having anything done that it should be sanded as if you *are* polishing it. Or have the shop do it. Otherwise, like a polish or chrome job, it just won't refract the light right or end up very reflective (possibly miss out on a lot of the shine, too).


edit: Thanks guys Coming from the guys who built my fave cars here on SN, it means a lot. I had nearly everything polished but I had to step it up to beat some people at some shows. Plus I was never fully happy with the intake. As the more-or-less centerpiece of the engine I felt it had to be absolutely flawless and no matter what I did I wasn't going to get it as good as chrome like the people I am referencing above. So, I had to one-up them...and I did so with a better chromer and better pre-polished base After that I ended up with a fully chrome bracketed S-trim kit, so I replaced all my other stuff with that, basically for free after selling the old stuff. can't blame me for that eh?