ok so i've seen people polish down their vaulve covers and so i did it. turned out great. but the next thing i'm polishing is the top part of the intake. i haven't seen this done anywhere. does anyone know of any pictures or if someone has doon it before? i would like to see what it would look like so i can get an idea.

It'll look like crap



The intake castings are extremely porous

quote Originally posted by RideZiLightning: It'll look like crap The intake castings are extremely porous

yes its true they are but i found out that they sand really easily. i've been able to get them almost just as smoth as sheet metal. the only part thats been hard is getting the edges, there's still a pit porous there but i'll see if i can work out something. =)

The intake castings are much worse than the valve covers

quote Originally posted by RideZiLightning: The intake castings are much worse than the valve covers

yeah i know i was talking about the intake. i'm only doing the top part. i have the other paited silver so i think it will look nice

i'll try to get some pictures up tonight. i'm not on my computer right now so i have none.

I did the top of my intake also. But, like stated earlier, it is very porus. This is the best that I could get it to polish up. Mothers Aluminum Polish and a polishing disc on an air tool.



Tony

Here's my '86 polished up. I found the intake less porous than the valve covers. I'm constantly touching up the valve covers but the intake stays nice.

This is an 88 duke intake manifold, wire-brushed. It came out very shiny. It is cast aluminum, like the V6 intake, so wire brushing probably would shine that up also.

Bloozeberry and TopNotch.....Very nice.

Tony

both of thoughs are very nice. about how long did it take for you guys?

here's my vaulve covers.
i'm going to see if i can get the intake to about the same. i'll fill in the letters and groves with red like on the covers

Thanks for the compliments there Tony and Ethan. Your valve covers are really nice too.

To be honest, mine took alot of work because of pits that were fairly deep (rust/salt zone/previous owner neglect). I did both upper and lower plenums and it probably took me close to 25 hours for the top plenum, and 35 hours for the bottom. I used a combination of belt sander, Dremel drum sanders of various diameters, and alot of hand sanding down to 400 grit before letting loose with an arbor-mounted polishing wheel for the bigger surfaces, and a smaller polishing wheel on a die grinder for the tight areas. Alot of work but worth it when you open up the trunk.

quote Originally posted by ethan555: both of thoughs are very nice. about how long did it take for you guys?

Thanks for the complements. Wire-brushing the manifold only took a couple of evenings. Putting on the Super Duty valve cover is another story.