Mazda Rotary Club

General => General Technical => Anything Engine/Performance/Tuning related => Topic started by: brundish24 on March 24, 2010, 06:21:52 PM

Title: polishing
Post by: brundish24 on March 24, 2010, 06:21:52 PM
hi guys i want to get some of my engine stuff polished anyone know of any good places in the uk ive sent a few emails with pics last week but no reply it doing my head in as ive taken them of the car and i want it back on the road.
Title: polishing
Post by: John RX7 on March 24, 2010, 06:32:19 PM
you can go down to a metal fabricators and they will do it,its a bit expenisive though,ive just done my manifold myself took a good couple of hours but so worth it
Title: polishing
Post by: Jit on March 24, 2010, 06:57:16 PM
Hi Mark

Nice to see youve got yourself another FD - always sensed you would get another! Any pic or links? I can have engine bits polished at reasonable rates if you can post it down to me? Drop me an email if you like j1t@live.co.uk
Title: polishing
Post by: brundish24 on March 25, 2010, 12:54:32 PM
email sent to jit but still open for advice i cant be arsed to polish them myself as i dont have the right tools or space to do it and the time the last time i did it i messed it up so i like a pro to do it really.
Title: polishing
Post by: nuki on March 25, 2010, 01:16:20 PM
Man just get yourself to the car shop/paint shop and do it yourself!!
 
i had never ever tried to polish metal before and i had my inlet manifold polished mirror finish within 25 minutes.

 
Get 3 types of buffer wheels for a power drill. 1x hardish, 1 x medium, 1x soft buffer from any car/paint shop
Get some Different grades of sandpaper and some WD40.
Get some metal polish like "autosol"

 
Rub the metal casting down with WD40 and sandpaper until the metal cast is all hand smooth… the better the rub down the better the finish on the buffing.
Once you are happy with the smoothness of the metal after you have sanded off the cast roughness…
Give it a polish with the hard buffer on the end of the drill.
Give it a polish with the medium buffer with a bit of autosol.
Then give it the finish with the soft buffer and a little more autosol.

 
i laughed when i realised how much money I had wasted on polishing over the years! The price is stupid for polishing metal.
Title: polishing
Post by: redgti on March 25, 2010, 02:22:46 PM
Quote from: nuki;681890Man just get yourself to the car shop/paint shop and do it yourself!!
 
i had never ever tried to polish metal before and i had my inlet manifold polished mirror finish within 25 minutes.


Get 3 types of buffer wheels for a power drill. 1x hardish, 1 x medium, 1x soft buffer from any car/paint shop
Get some Different grades of sandpaper and some WD40.
Get some metal polish like "autosol"


Rub the metal casting down with WD40 and sandpaper until the metal cast is all hand smooth… the better the rub down the better the finish on the buffing.
Once you are happy with the smoothness of the metal after you have sanded off the cast roughness…
Give it a polish with the hard buffer on the end of the drill.
Give it a polish with the medium buffer with a bit of autosol.
Then give it the finish with the soft buffer and a little more autosol.


i laughed when i realised how much money I had wasted on polishing over the years! The price is stupid for polishing metal.

 
mirror finish in 25mins, please show me what you used to achieve this i spent hours on my inlet manifold with sandpaper and a machine polisher to finish.
Title: polishing
Post by: nuki on March 25, 2010, 02:47:13 PM
when i had the inlet in the vice with all the butterflys removed etc just the solid inlet it took 25 minutes with a mate helping me rub down.
the drill was at the unit it was my mates 240v hard wired high rpm drill
Title: polishing
Post by: Nik da Greek on March 25, 2010, 02:48:57 PM
Yeah, with the greatest respect I think 25 mins with mechanical means would struggle to polish a UIM to a mirror shine, let alone doing it by hand......I\'ve done a lot of polishing, and I simply don\'t believe it\'s possible in that short a time :rolleyes:
Title: polishing
Post by: nuki on March 25, 2010, 03:02:25 PM
You obviously polish by the "book" and probably use waxes and polishing equipment you\'ve read from guides... with the quick guide i have posted its not going to be 100% polished with cast areas you cannot access without specific drill bits and flatting scratches caused by buffing too deep
80% of the UIM is polished to a mirror finish and as far as the public eyes concerned it looks sweet as I have been told.. dont make me create a 25 minute video of how to polish a UIM lol ^_^
Title: polishing
Post by: Ada7 on March 25, 2010, 03:04:51 PM
There\'s a good \'how to polish\' on FDUK if you search it :D

Adam
Title: polishing
Post by: nuki on March 25, 2010, 03:08:43 PM
yer didnt your create it if remember right? :)
Title: polishing
Post by: Nik da Greek on March 25, 2010, 03:15:01 PM
Quote from: nuki;681923You obviously polish by the "book" and probably use waxes and polishing equipment you\'ve read from guides... with the quick guide i have posted its not going to be 100% polished with cast areas you cannot access without specific drill bits and flatting scratches caused by buffing too deep
80% of the UIM is polished to a mirror finish and as far as the public eyes concerned it looks sweet as I have been told.. dont make me create a 25 minute video of how to polish a UIM lol ^_^

Hahaha. yeah, I wanna see that in real time :Giggle

Nahhh, you\'re right you can make the process a lot shorter but obviously only at the expense of quality. Like you said yourself, the quality of the grinding/sanding/abrasive stage dictates the quality of the polish, so the 25 minutes vs mirror polish statement is slightly self-contradictory. Not calling you a fibber, that wasn\'t how it was meant to come out :o
Title: polishing
Post by: Ada7 on March 25, 2010, 03:28:39 PM
Quote from: nuki;681926yer didnt your create it if remember right? :)

Yeh it might of been me :p
What i find is the longer you take the better the final result :D
Saying that i have had some stuff sent off recently and done professionally. It came back looking like it was chromed and makes my stuff look dull :o

Adam
Title: polishing
Post by: nuki on March 25, 2010, 03:30:27 PM
Yer i totally agree you pay for what your get with polishing as well as paint. But 2 of us sanding away like jack rabbits with pure black mucky hands and taking it in turn to polish after the clean up when you get wrist ache it did literally take us 25 minutes none stop no joke.

 
It all Started by my mate ringing me up saying I’ve done my inlet and crossover mirror finish.. i was thinking to myself yer whatever....
Anyways went down there had a look and i was shocked! Literally! Anyways cut a long story shot he said take yours off now it only takes half hour.
I was thinking to myself yer whatever...
25 minutes after we had the inlet stipped on the bench i was astounded how my inlet had been transformed...

 
But yer if you want professionally mirror finished car parts you will pay the price for a company to do it because they probably wont do bad finishes due to the respect of the company so they will charge you top price!

 
i haven’t touched mine since the polish probably why its done quite dull..... :(
Title: polishing
Post by: nuki on March 25, 2010, 03:52:33 PM
brundish give these guys a call they seem quite close to you.
http://www.metalpolishersuk.com/about.asp
:)
Title: polishing
Post by: DSNorth on March 30, 2010, 04:56:25 AM
Ive got a machine pilosher, Im over Ligh....er Surrey way, Welcome to come have a play in the garage
Title: polishing
Post by: tyson23 on March 30, 2010, 08:11:26 AM
Quote from: brundish24;681674hi guys i want to get some of my engine stuff polished anyone know of any good places in the uk ive sent a few emails with pics last week but no reply it doing my head in as ive taken them of the car and i want it back on the road.

i do polishing mate
Title: polishing
Post by: brundish24 on March 30, 2010, 04:20:54 PM
im doing it myself at the moe but thanks if you can give me a price and i can get them re done properly. lol
Title: polishing
Post by: Jas on April 04, 2010, 10:56:47 PM
i polished my inlet manifold for a golf 16v b4 when i worked as a car painter it took me a lot longer then 25mins and that was with all the right tools. i must of spent 3 hours +
 sorry bud but you only get what you put in.
Title: polishing
Post by: SiH on April 05, 2010, 07:54:50 AM
Nuki, you must have turbo hands!

I reckon my wheel lips took me circa 12 hours on each lip to get a mirror shine I was happy with. That was with grades of sand paper and a 3 stage drill mounted mop kit.

I\'m doing naother, small casting at the mo and it\'s alreayd taken me about 2 hours and I haven\'t even done half of the first stage of sanding, as I\'m still taking the casting off.
Polishing sucks. It kills your fingers, your muscles, your fingerprints, and your soul.
Title: polishing
Post by: redgti on April 05, 2010, 11:12:13 AM
brundish lets see some pics of the stuff you have polished just out of interest, i want to compare to my efforts cheers.
 
James