Good point, Jafro. This is my winter project - upper intake manifold from the Stang. As you can see, it's pretty large, and the casting is EXTREMELY rough.



I originally wanted to do the whole thing by hand, but I think I'll have to use a tool to take off the casting roughness, it's just too rough to do by hand. But after that, I'll do the rest by hand. It doesn't look too bad to me, lots of big, flat, easy surfaces. I may get lazy and not do the parts you don't see (like the bottom). We'll see. I had an idea that seemed kinda fun. Instead of polishing the whole thing, I thought about polishing the crossover tube, and the plenums on the left and right, but painting the runners in the middle a gunmetal color. Thought that might look kinda neat... what do you think? Merry Xmas dude.

 

Oy. Now there's a candidate for powder coating. Man, I wouldn't want to do that thing at all. That's one of the roughest I've ever seen. Just make sure your power tool covers enough surface area that you don't wear grooves in it with the edges of the sandpaper. It's easy to do that with the rougher grits (<220), and it takes forever to sand them out. You want all surface abbrasions to be gone by the time you're done with 320 grit.

 

Aye. It's a royal pain in the ass. I think I may just polish the crossover and plenums, and just paint or powdercoat the runners or something. Trying to maneuver little tools in there to get the runners is just asking for trouble. So far I'm doing okay though... hows your coming??


(excuse the crappy pic, my camera is old and can't take pictures of shiny things without blurring...)

 

Moderators: Would someone please move this thread to Tech Forums/DIY? For someone with 500 posts, I should have known there was a forum for this by now, but I didn't. I guess that makes me mo-ron.

 

1000 grit baybee! :hugglez:

I've got 37 hours in it. I still have about 5 hours to go before polishing, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... reflecting back at me in the finish. This is one gorgeous piece of aluminum.

I had to hand sand the detail stuff with 320 grit for 4 days. After that, all I had to do is go over it twice with 400, 600, and then 1000 grit. I can't find my 800 grit, but I guess I didn't really need that.

 

I can't wait to see this polished...

 

I told you I'd have it finished up by new years... with the sanding, that is...

 

VERY nice. I can't believe you've gotten into some of the corners and edges you have. VERY nice.

I'll give up long before mine looks that good. You're a sick man.

 

:thumbup:

I told you... get that dremel sander! But remember that eventually whatever you reach with it will have to be hand sanded.

 

you two are crazy. seriously. dont seek help. just post more pics. hehe