ron m.

So, I was cleaning the car yesterday and decided to hose the engine bay (as well as service the check valves on the air pump for P0410... we'll see what happens). When I put everything back, I noticed that the bay looked dull compared to the engine compartment of my Miata. So initially, I just did a rough polish of the intake manifold but decided that it didn't make a difference. On a whim, I took out my sanding wheel and began grinding down the cast marks. Then I used a sander at 600 grit to level it off, then hand sand at 1000 and 2000 grit before a final Mother's aluminum polish (not how I would normally do it, but the wife said I can't spend all day on the car). I'll need to come back and actually remove the manifold to get decent results, but that's for another time.

Anyway, here's how it looks:

dgiturbo

So what your saying is that I have to set aside an hour and a half also?

1000 and 2000 grit you say?

ron m.

Hehehe... it all depends. The work I did was actually amateurish compared to the other things I did. It's much easier to do the polishing with the manifold off. Typical progression for a polishing job like this is:
1) remove cast marks with sanding wheel (120 to 220 grit)
1a) remove cast marks in hard to reach places with dremel
2) electric sander (400 to 600 grit)
3) manual sanding (1000, 1500 then 2000)
4) polishing wheel + rouge
5) aluminum polishing paste (Mother's).

You get something like this:

sosh

Actually the title of your post says it all. I think that perhaps you have too much time on your hands but if it gives you some pleasure go right ahead with the project.

ron m.

I argee. I'll need professional psychiatric help at some point. Conversely, I really don't have that much free time... I had to "steal" the hour and a half by claiming that I was doing relevant work.

raymond g-

great add-on to detailing. take a bow!

ron m.

Thanks, Ray. Out of curiousity, I did a search within this forum and found at least one member who did the same thing (he did a better job, I might add). Nice to know I'm not the only nut out here.

MARK CUMMINS

Josh at HOP in Huntington Beach Did the Full polish on his Wifes CLK 430 Intake Manifold (Off The Car) he even did the Vortech Supercharger and all the Pipes.. Along with the Valve covers..Looked Great for about a week then turned from the heat...So it gets detailed along with the car

http://hopracing.com/gallery5/DSC00638.JPG

ron m.

That looks nice! Hmmm... another supercharged car. I wonder what the wife would say.... better yet, I wonder what lie I need to weave this time???

"Honey, the intake's not getting sufficient air. We'll need to add this gizmo. And then, we'll need to make sure we don't run lean so we need to do something about the fueling. And since we're at it, I'm hearing something on the tranny... looks like we'll need to replace that soon too."

ohlord

you pull it off to do the inside surface
Send it off to Jet Hot and have it ceramic coated the luster will stay for ever and it will flow better.
Send off the exhaust manifolds at the same time have them extrusion honed and jet coated they will flow like headers.
ohlord

ron m.

Huh? If I do that, then no one will see the good work!

Seriously, I'll consider that when the time comes.

elchuang

Good job! That looks way cool

romanse320

Cool, but I must observe that you do not have a wife and young children to thus afford the extra hour and a half !

h0rn3t920

ill hit u up u can do that to my car

ron m.

But I do...
One wife
two daughters (12 and 2)
one dog

I actually admit to "stealing" an hour and a half...

koskesh

I love the look of that it really upgrades the car looks wise. I wish i could do something like that to the I6 e320. And I don't have a wife, I'm free.

ron m.

Buy me an airline ticket and make up a good excuse to the wife and I'll do it.

ron m.

I did the same thing to my W124 coupe... that was a bit tougher (for the valve cover, mind you).

koskesh

so I'm guessing it would consist of scraping the gray paint off and going at it with the same method you did this one?

ron m.

I recall using a paint stripper to remove the paint. I think an option would be to get a spare valve cover and work on polishing that. It really does take a lot of time to do it right. The time I quoted is the half-*** approach...