Polished 3400 SFI
 

Today I decided I was going to contribute something to the board. (besides my normal BS:rolleyes2:). So this is my writeup for polishing aluminum to a mirror finish.

1. thoroughly clean whatever you want to polish. I used paint thinner then acetone, alcohol, and water..but you dont need to use all these (its probably overkill anyways)

2. wet sand using various grits of sandpaper.. I used this order and re-cleaned in between grits, remove all the marks from the previous paper, by the time you get done with 2000 it should be almost mirror finish.
220-> 320-> 400-> 800-> 1500-> 2000

3. polish with a buffing pad and aluminum polish (I used Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish)

4. Wipe clean removing any fingerprints and your done :yahoo:

results on my UIM: and no you don't have to ask, I know my engine is dirty..
If the weather permits tomorrow the rest of the UIM is getting hit with a semi-gloss black for a good contrast

Edit: This pic is before I used Mag & Aluminum polish, I ran out of light before I polished.
its much more reflective now.

Kewl!!!

Looks great.

ok as you know my knowledge of cars especially with under the hood is VERY bad. What is UIM is that what you already have polished or is that the rest of the top part of the engine?

UIM = Upper intake manifold, I dont have the entire manifold polished, just the lettering, the manifold itself is the dull silver part

oooo ok. so that whole this is able to be pilosed and have that glossy finish. That is sweet, about how long did the lettering take you. that just gave me some very nice ideas

the lettering took around a half hour (taking my time to get it perfect)...I highly recommend an electric sander if you are going to polish the whole manifold...

hahah yea i have that. dad was a custom cabinet builder. so he has a nice one

lucky you...I lost everything when I moved, even my sanding block..and I'm to much of a cheap ass to buy one, so I used my blackberry :lol:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH always knew the blackberry would be put to good use for something

MY dad has a card that says. Thanks A**hole if you f*** like you park you will never get it in .

wrong thread man...

Polish the whole thing!!!

its still a possibility, I'm going to see how I like it black first...cuz polishing the whole thing would be a PITA lol

I had that thought for mine, sometime if my LIMG goes out and I have to tear everything down I might polish up the manifolds and valve covers, and if I don't like it it won't be too difficult to paint with them off the car.

painting polished aluminum doesn't work very well... I'm polishing my valve covers next and maybe alternator?

Yeah if i painted them I'd rough up the surface first, probably blue and leave the 3400 SFI letters polished, or maybe black, not sure how that would look though on a silver car.

Looks awesome gonna do that to my ecotec valve cover next year, I used steel wool and it cleaned it up quite a bit, but nowhere near a mirror finish

Personally I recommend using blue magic over the mothers mag n alunimum polish. Looks good though. Ur 1st step tho is total overkill. Acetone paint thinner alcohol its all the same shit man.

Looks good