How-To: Polish Intake Manifold

[silver_bullet_04]

How to- Polish intake manifold to a mirror shine.

first off you will need to go to your local hardware store or your store of choice and buy 180grit,400grit,600grit,1000grit,1200grit sand paper,buffing wheel to use with drill,palm sander,metal polishing compound,drill and wire brush.

Step1: use the wire brush to get off all the dirt and oils off the manifold.


Step2: use the palm sander if you have one(if you dont have one you can use your hand but it will take longer) start out with the 180grit sand paper, start sanding the entire manifold. you should get it pretty smooth with the 180grit. then work your way to the 400grit and when you get to the 600grit start using water while you sand.until you get to the 1200grit.


Step3: take the drill with the buffing wheel and use what ever polishing compound you choose. apply a little polish compound and buff it in with the wheel. make sure you are careful on the edges and not nick the metal with the drill or the end of the buffer wheel. Start out on one end and work your way around the entire manifold. the more you buff the more it will shine so this is up to you on how long you want to do this step for.

When your done it should look something like this hope you enjoy

This also works with valve covers and throttle bodys!

[maxfastest]

Too Late, Already done it...

Good write up though..

[Ragin_SRT]

nice

[gucci srt4]

very nice i like it

[-ND4SPD-]

I figured you'd use a die grinder instead of a drill to do the sanding & buffing?

[smoothasdee]

ill pay to do it for me.....im layzie

[silver_bullet_04]

Quote: Originally Posted by -ND4SPD-

I figured you'd use a die grinder instead of a drill to do the sanding & buffing?

You wouldnt want to use a die grinder to sand because it would never get the surface smooth but only cut grooves all in the manifold where the palm sander covers alot more surface at once but you could use the die grinder for the buffing wheel but i didnt have one handy at the time so a drill works just as good lol.

Quote: Originally Posted by smoothasdee

ill pay to do it for me.....im layzie

Pm me!

[-ND4SPD-]

How are you getting down inbetween the runners or get into the tight spots up by the injectors?

[silver_bullet_04]

Quote: Originally Posted by -ND4SPD-

How are you getting down inbetween the runners or get into the tight spots up by the injectors?

for the tight spots i used my hands along with inbetween the runners.

[-ND4SPD-]

I was thinking it would be easiest to knocking down the casting bumps with a dremel. Do as much as you can with that then do the rest by hand. Maybe not?

[evo77]

I wish Mopar would have came out with the chrome manifold from their catalog years ago.

Instead of being plated, its sprayed with Permastar. A chrome powder coat/paint finish thats more durable then chrome plating and looks exactly like chrome.

[DDogsrt461BLK 3.0]

I just fuking power coated mine......................

[MOPAR_SRT-4]

nice write up

[silver_bullet_04]

Quote: Originally Posted by -ND4SPD-

I was thinking it would be easiest to knocking down the casting bumps with a dremel. Do as much as you can with that then do the rest by hand. Maybe not?

You could do that but you would have to be careful not to make any ruts or pockets because then you would have to try flushing it out wich would be hell. Id just stick to sandpaper and by hand in tight spots. its not worth the risk of screwing anything up taking a shortcut.

But you could send it to one of your local chrome shops and they could fix you up but dont know how much they would charge for something like this.

[-ND4SPD-]

Quote: Originally Posted by evo77

I wish Mopar would have came out with the chrome manifold from their catalog years ago.

Instead of being plated, its sprayed with Permastar. A chrome powder coat/paint finish thats more durable then chrome plating and looks exactly like chrome.

I never knew that Mopar came out with this?

I was just getting ready to take mine down to get this done. Otherwide I would have had Maxfastest up there polish mine as he does nice work.

I'm a bit partial to powdercoating, I'm thinking that I may do some sanding prep on my mani though to make sure it's really smooth before I take it to get coated. Here's another example of this powdercoating (AGP's old shop car), looks darn near like chrome / polished metal.