Project: Mavro Gato - 99 Turbo'd 3L

[PuckPuck]

have any of you considered media blasting the intakes... start off with beads, then work to a thick grain sand, finally to a fine grain sand? I know the upfront costs may sound prohibitive but in the end it should save you quite a few hard hours, and well time is money... especially when you could save 40+ hours of labour for a hundred bucks or so. You would still need to do the final polishing by hand, but it should get nearly everything else out of the way.

[Topik]

removed spots for DPNI FTW. Trevor how long total so far has it taken you again? We have a media blaster at school and a powdercoat booth. Even though school is 4 hours away from danG and I's location. hehe

[FastCougar]

Originally Posted by PuckPuck

have any of you considered media blasting the intakes... start off with beads, then work to a thick grain sand, finally to a fine grain sand? I know the upfront costs may sound prohibitive but in the end it should save you quite a few hard hours, and well time is money... especially when you could save 40+ hours of labour for a hundred bucks or so. You would still need to do the final polishing by hand, but it should get nearly everything else out of the way.

Knowing what I know now, Yes, I would have invested in such a setup. However, at the time, it never crossed my mind because I simply didn't have the room in my single car garage for it.

[FastCougar]

Worked on the UIM for another 2.5 hrs. today. I went back over everything with 80 grit and then with 120. Next up is 220, then finish off by hand with 400, then 800. As for how much time invested thus far, it's been spread far and wide, but I would imagine roughly 30+ hrs. to date. That being said, I could probably redo this in about 10-15 hours with what I have learned and techniques I have tried during this time. Keep in mind, this is all only prep for the polishing. I expect that to take about 4 hours at most. Here we are at 120 grit finished ... I still have to touch up some problem areas as noted in the pictures where there is some pitting.

[fordrule]

wowzaaaa

[Blackcoog]

The time needed to polish those things is just crazy. I've had people ask if they could buy mine or have me polish one up for them. With the hrs needed to get it done the cost is way too much. For a personal mod the hrs don't mean much if they are your own.

[warmonger]

Originally Posted by Blackcoog

The time needed to polish those things is just crazy. I've had people ask if they could buy mine or have me polish one up for them. With the hrs needed to get it done the cost is way too much. For a personal mod the hrs don't mean much if they are your own.

Personally, I like the brushed aluminum look. If you were to take some kind of a stain/paint, say the same color as you car and brush it on right now then wipe off the excess you'd have little bits of the color in all the brush marks.
Then you could buy a couple cans of clearcoat and coat that biotch to give it a deep gloss look.
You could also have the cougar cat etched into the front first and add the coloring to that as well before clearcoating.
Then it would really look cool AND original.

[PuckPuck]

Originally Posted by FastCougar

Knowing what I know now, Yes, I would have invested in such a setup. However, at the time, it never crossed my mind because I simply didn't have the room in my single car garage for it.

I wasn't talking about getting your own sand blaster.. that's not worth the cost, certainly not for one project. But rather go to a shop that does sand blasting. Consider the amount of money you spent on griding bits and sand paper and such (at least 10 dollars if not 20 or more).. then the hours involved... I would caution the next person to even attempt this, should at least look into the media blasting route.

[FastCougar]

When I started this, I was considering offering this as a service, thus contimplating buying my own media blasting equipment ... I certainly wouldn't have bought for a single manifold

[FastCougar]

Quick update: I spent about 2.5 hrs. Monday night working out the pitting in the "valley" where the casting nubs used to be ... which is why there is pitting in that spot. Didn't get it all out, but I was starting to get concerned with punching through going too deep, so I smoothed it out as best I could. I then sanded down the entire thing with 180 grit. To see/feel what it would be like, I did the entire front chamber in 400 grit ... SMOOTH! Tonight it's going to get sanded down with 220 all over. That should take about 2-2.5 hrs and all I plan on doing tonight. Tomorrow night I will be hand sanding with 400 all over and depending on the surface texture, might switch to 800. However, last night's experiment with 400 has me thinking that 800 grit might not be necessary.

On a side note ... Warmonger will like this ... the brushed aluminum look is REALLY growing on me! It's going to match the rest of the entire color nicely ... ironically, the engine was painted in "brushed aluminum" paint

However, my concern will be not enough color contrast with regards to the engine. Pulling the valve covers and repainting high gloss black isn't really an option since I don't think that the gaskets will survive yet another pull and retorque without leaking. So, I'm thinking about doing a recess wipe like Tom suggested. I'm going to test a small area on the underside of the manifold that I have been prepping as well even though it won't be seen ... I did that just for this purpose.