It seems like everyone has nice polished up engine bays, and I\'m curious to how easy it would be to do yourself.
My father has a fully polished engine in his veilside fortune Rex (thanks to jason at super7) and it looks stunning. However it seems quite expensive to get done for something that is just a visual thing.
I guess allot of ppl most have done this themselves and wondering how simple it would be for someone who as never polished metal before?
I seen this guide http://www.robrobinette.com/polish.htm which seems quite helpful but wondering what guys here have done.
Cheers
i have done a few bits, and imo it is a filthy dirty horrible job, small bits ok but if you\'re talking lots pay someone else to do it with the right kit. If you do it yourself, you need lots of wet & dry sandpaper, buffing wheels and various rotary grinders etc. Expect black fingers for several days, and hell knows what fine aluminium dust does to your lungs, despite wearing a decent mask it gets everywhere!
Hi-
Someone did the maths, and it works out expensive, due to the time to grind/polish/buff up such a hard material
I guess the only practial advantage is that it can be cleaned much easier than the grainy finish
it takes ages mate if you have time and patience then got for it, it\'ll take a few hours a day for a few weeks if your doing it all by hand.
i\'ve done mine not to the standard of other peoples and it took ages.
I did my plenum in 2 loooong days. Lots of hand sanding in all the tricky areas and used a bench grinder with 3 abrasive compounds and then 3 grades of polish to get that lovely shine. Is a dirty job but one thats very rewarding as you can see you efforts quite quickly.
I went from this...
(http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq83/Adam-Blackshaw/Rex%20II/18062008678.jpg)
To this....
(http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq83/Adam-Blackshaw/Rex%20II/250920081060.jpg)
Adam
thats impressive for two days work Adam, approx how much on materials? I\'m taking mine off the road in October/November for the winter so will have plenty of time, although I\'m toying with the idea of getting something engraved on mine so might get that done first before polishing
Call that a shiny plenum!? :D Now, this is a shiny plenum :rollin
(http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Nik_da_Greek/My%20new%20RX%207%20version%20two/DSCF1774.jpg)
However, willy waving aside lol, it is a horrible, crappy dirty job and to do a plenum really well would take two days just like Adam said. You could get an adequate polishing kit from eBay or wherever for less than 50 quid, and it\'ll last for years, but it depends how much your time\'s worth to you as well. Takes a lot of time sanding before you can even start to polish, not a nice job at all
....they do look lovely when they\'re done then...I\'m sure Mazda made them this shape just because they could rather than because they had to, just so people could polish them up!
(http://i668.photobucket.com/albums/vv43/Nik_da_Greek/My%20new%20RX%207%20version%20two/DSCF1767.jpg)
Look for the polishing shop on ebay or google. They have an abrasive/polishing kit that\'ll do the job for you.
Adam