keeping shine on alloy

[smithy]

 hi all, is there a product that can be applied to polished alloy/ aluminium to keep the shine and wont be affected by engine temps? or do i just keep polishing
i remember reading here somewhere of such a product but im stuffed if i can find it now.

cheers
dean

[zulu]

The Original PURPLE metal polish, made by Californian Custom is pretty good, try auto or truck parts shops.
Gary

[smithy]

cheers zulu, i currently use autosol which i find is pretty good in bringing up the shine and it does stay shiny, but im curious to find if there is some sort of durable laquer or similar that can be applied to the metal.

cheers

[fccool59]

if you want to preserve it and degrease it you will probably need something like a por 15 alloy wheel resto kit. and it comes with a free tube of autosol to polish it with before you apply the supplied 2k clear.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

The POR gear is pretty good, I used it on the manifold and rocker cover on the FE and they still look the goods. It says it can be brushed on, the first coat looked great, but the second left brush marks. Might have been operator error though  

[smithy]

thanks heaps guys, thats the stuff i was after.
i have just spent roughly around 100 hours   hand polishing my VK efi manifold, never never again  .
it looked easy but the casting was absolute crap!!
i was scared i'd rub through in places just trying to get some of the pitting out.
now ive just got the tappet cover left and im almost done with the throttle body. its going to look good but its fiddly dirty work.
this is where harkos 20 min rule really comes into play

cheers
dean

[HARKO]

  Funny that I started to cut back my injection a while back and only spent 20 minutes on it hehe  

[fccool59]

someone offerd me a polished vk manifold once for $500.
I have got most of the paint of the one I have here and started sanding but it looks barely started on.
got any tips for polishing these manifolds?

[smithy]

hi leon, $500 is a lot but even with propper tools id reckon it would still take a while to do. if you have yourself a dremel or air die grinder you can do this a lot easier if not then grab a drink and read on

first and the best tip i can give anyone is unless you are entering as an elite in any show ONLY POLISH AREAS THAT ARE GOING TO BE SEEN & SPEND MORE TIME ON AREAS THAT GET SEEN FIRST

i initially got that horrible orange baked on plastic like paint sandblasted off, even then not all of it came off.
then got myself a couple of wire wheels ( ones that mount onto your drill) and hit the manifold with these., they got the rest of the paint off eventually but you will find they dont reach in all the places, but they also started to knock back some of the texture of the casting which is a good thing.

next i grabbed some 80 grit paper some beers and some decent music and started sanding. after a couple of weekends at this stage i realised that a cheap pair of mechanics gloves will stop my fingertips from being cut back and blood getting everywhere. skin does not like constant contact with 80 grit :-/ they also helped on cold canberra winter days.

as with polishing any alloy you just have to work your way through varying grades of paper, i found the hardest part of this job is really only the first 4 grades, 80, 120, 220, and 400. these took a good couple of weekends but went through the final grades ( 600, 800, 1200 then finally 2000 ) in about 6-8 hours.

before i went too far i cut the EGR  port from the base
( this is not needed ) and got someone to weld up the hole. also if you are still going to run carbs with the supercharger check and see what holes you will need to use on the manifold and get the ones you dont welded up.

you can also grab yourself one of those little engraving type tools from supercheap only around $20- $30 which comes with a range of attachments and will let you get into some of the fiddly areas.
the castings on these manifolds is really poor, even on mine there are bits that look very much like wrinkles.

and finally if you have a bench grinder grab yourself some buffing pads and finnish the job off with these. make sure you wear some decent safety galsses and a dust mask, as crap will go every where. if not you can get smaller buffing wheels that attaches to you drill.

i guess there is no real easy way to do this unless you pay someone but it having the right tools ( not like me) does make it simpler but after all this hard work they do look sexy when done
but as i stated before apply harkos rule and you'll be suprised how much you can get done.

i will try and get some pics on the weekend and show you.

good luck
dean

[bent8-58]

Gaday!
 I feel your pain guys,l spent countless weekends polishing the inlet manifold for the Chevy,the best tool l found for the job was the trusty die-grinder with a piece of pipe the right size to fit in the collar,l cut a slot through both sides of the pipe long ways & cut small pieces of sandpaper to slide in the slot & wrap around the pipe,it works well as the sandpaper wears (quickly!)it sort of replaces itself ,but dont leave it too late to replace it,cause you just have to sand the marks out left from the pipe! To polish it l wrapped a small piece of flanelette around the trusty pipe with the buffing-wheel polish on it.
I then had it ceramic coated to protect it from constant polishing & fuel-stains etc. Jope this helps!  Daz.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Good idea Daz, I have used that a few times also.
I also found at an abrasives store a clamp that tapers to a point with a reverse thread lock. This fitted up to the die-grinder and you clamped your sand-paper or felt for polishing, got right into the smaller nooks and crannys.

[smithy]

here is the manifold and throttle body so far, it could do with some more fine detail work but franlky its not a show car and my arm really hurts from sanding  :-/ :-/



im also modifying an aluminium pipe which will contain all the wiring for injectors etc and will sit just above the fuel rail.

im seriously thinking of handing the tappet cover over to someone professional for a polish, ive got more important things to spend hours on, like wiring, plumbing lines and computer and about 1000 other things
dean

[Ed]

Looking fantastic Dean,

I gave up polishing my rocker covers, I may finsih the job properly one day.

Your manifold and TB look great. Cant wait to see it finsihed.

Cheers

Ed

[craiga]

Guys,

For bigger areas you can buy a linishing wheel that fits on your bench grinder.

You can also buy cloth wheels and rouge which will finish the job off nicely. Tool shops will also be able to provide smaller polishing wheels.

I've done a set of Chev rocker covers and a Holden six alloy cover recently and they come up a treat. Its also VERY good for the stainless strips on FE/FC.

Your manifold looks trick, congratulations on your application to task!!!

Cheers,

Craig.

[smithy]

cheers guys, i think i'll look into the linishing wheel to be honest it never crossed my mind. the problem with this mainfold is though it looks like it would be simple ( largish areas) there are so many places that are really hard to get into. but it will certainly work on the tappet cover.
with some of my stainless trim i even managed to get out some small scratches using 1200 then 2000 paper and the polishing wheel. youve got to go easy on it though.

Ed, i cant wait to see it finished aswell, its been long enough. should have the head on in the next week i hope, so will post pics when its all lookin purty

dean