Anyone have experience with polishing aluminum intakes and ZF cases. I have plenty of die grinders .. just need a little help with the exact polishing wheels, sanding disc's and compound .. etc used to perfrom this task.

Thanks

Ron

Use only very light grit sanding stuff or you'll be trying to get scratches out forever. Eastwood sells a lot of polishing heads that fit into the tight places, I think that they even sell an intake polishing kit. A friend of mine turned me on to Hollywood's Metal Polish. I've tried every major brand out there and none come close to what this polish does.

the best stuff I have found for polishing aluminum, is called "pay somebody else". the stuff works best on large castings or complex castings with lots of pockets and creases, like intake manifolds.

If I can't find a can of "pay somebody else" on the shelf, I normally use another product called "just paint it and get over it".

sorry Ron, couldn't resist...

joking aside, in lieu of polishing, bead blasting parts makes them look pretty good too.

I recieved delivery of my IR EFI intake to fit my windsor block with C302B heads.

4NFORD - I tried those 3M 2" discs that have scotch bright on them ...they seems to work the best but they dont get in the tight places. Need to get the rough casting smooth .. I think those sand paper rolls with the flaps ???

George ... I think your right ... but I have one of my workers who can do it .. I just need to find the polishing equip. Your right I like the glass beaded look but I need to smoothen the casting.

Mark .. is that polished or glass beaded ??? It looks nice !

Thanks Guys.

Just glass bead the case. You don't need to polish it. It will wind up with a nice clean matte surface. Then all you will need to do is to squirt it with wheel cleaner and hose it off because it will get dusty.

Yes I agree .. and I just bought a glass bead cabinet to do that .. but the intake still needs to be smoothened.

R

>Question ... what is the usual method of polishing an intake.

Unfortunately, the answer is just good old fashioned elbow grease. It’s a tedious dirty job. Start with 120 grit unless you’re doing heavy material removal or you’ll forever be trying to remove the scratches. Use discs or flapper wheels on the large flat areas then cartridge rolls everywhere else. You’ll need to progress from 120-220-320 grit and then use buffs with a least two successively finer buffing compounds depending upon the level of luster you're after. By the time you're done you’ll have polished on every square inch of the intake at least 5 times over.

In a production environment, you would knock off the flash and then use a large tumbler or vibratory media machine progressing through 3-5 different types of vibratory media taking the better part of a day on each cycle. But you just throw it in and walk away and come back later. It takes a big machine to do an intake. My business has one big enough to do a carb but not and intake. Most businesses that have a large enough machine don’t have fine polishing media as they are likely just deburring castings and production parts. Also, if you tumble or vibratory, you need to do the parts before they are machined or you need to make masking plates to protect the machined surfaces.

This is why the folks in this this thread are telling you to hire it done. It’s grunt work and the shops that do it relegate the job to the bottom of their food chain.

FWIW, even after you have it polished, it will still oxidize and need to be touched up every once in while though it is much easier to do the touch up polishing. There are some sealers that will provide some marginal protection.

Media blasting is OK but I have found that it actually make castings more susceptable to staining. The oxide layers on a raw cast surface or better yet the anodized surface on a production intake are more durable finishes IMO.

Kelly

Thanks Kelly,

I'm never really a polished aluminum lover .. I favor glass beading.

I appreciate the advise and I have heard from many that if done wrong the scratches will be hard to remove ..thats why I asked.

Other wise its an excellent casting ... nice work ... I still may try it myself and utilize one of my shop boys to take on this task.

I have used a hi temp clear on my glass beaded vlave covers and intakes and it last and prevents stains.. A little foamy engine gunk or simple green and an blow it off with air and it looks great.

Thanks Again.

I have found by accident that if you mix in some "black beauty" with the class beads that you get a patterned finish in the aluminum.

The most difficult aluminum to refinish is the pressure molded stuff.

It winds up with a lot of strange surface flash.
The black beauty will etch the surface a little, sometimes in a pattern like some of the molded plastics come out.

I think Edelbrock goes right for the juggler and uses chilled iron pellet like a wheel-a-brator does.

I like thier finish the best. Too bad it doesn't stay that way.

Experiment with the media a little before you get too involved in polishing.

Another idea Ron ...

powder coating is available in clear, and in a shiny silver finish that has an appearance very close to that of buffed aluminum.

I'm told when used on intake manifiolds the clear powder coating will stain a bit where the gasoline varnish tends to collect around the edge of the carburetor mounting pad.

But what the hey, if you can tolerate a little yellowing of the clear powder coat, or if the appearance of the shiny silver suits you, powdercoating will make a very low maintenance finish for aluminum parts.