Project: Mavro Gato - 99 Turbo'd 3L

[bensenvill]

Originally Posted by jaged

terrys just being a tease, its smoother lighter and thinner than any uim ive ever sceen. it all goes to his anal attention to detail. im thinking of polishing an aluminum intake for my 3L

yuuup, infact I've had to resort to cutting up a second UIM just to verify metal thickness in certain areas.

Trevor I agree with you on not wanting to dig too deep on those 6 "nubs", after extrude honing, that area is pretty thin.

just out of curiousity, have you weighted your UIM to see how much weight you've physically removed? I've gotten mine to under 14 pounds now and I still have alot to go [I havent even touched the two outter runners].

I finally found my resperator [in the laundry bin...phhh], so I'm going to clean a few things up and I'll post some new photos. eitherway trevor, yours is looking great and your moving exponentially faster than I am.

[FastCougar]

If I had to do this again, I wouldn't have removed the casting nubs. This pitting is caused by air trapped in the molten metal and MOSTLY happens at casting spots.

Oh yeah, in case nobody noticed, you can tell the difference between an SVT UIM and a Non-SVT UIM by the EGR passage location. The SVT EGR passage bleeds into the intake stream on the top of the throttle body mounting surface, while the Non-SVT UIM's passage does so on the bottom.

[bensenvill]

ahhah, I found a photo that shows what I removed from the ports [this was taken back in febuary, very early photo as you can see]. that shaved a ton of weight off and even with the fuel rail and injectors [and wire harness, although I have other plans for that] you start beign able to see much deeper into the engine... hence why I said it increased sight lines.

[nadthomas]

Just looking at those photos reminds me of the days I spent attempting to polish mine, but I got sick of it and just resorted to painting it in the end.

Good Work.

[FastCougar]

I have practiced polishing it twice now and I just don't see how I will be able to do the entire UIM and have it come out professional without a standing floor buffer. I'm currently contimplating simply to paint it a high gloss black with a nice double coating of clear coat.

[nadthomas]

That is exactly the issue I had.

[warmonger]

Nice!

I'm sure with your attention to detail whatever you choose to do it will work out nicely!

[RodneyBur]

From my experience the small swirls and "air pockets" are near impossible to get out. I really don't know how professional places polish these things up so nicely. I went all the way up to 2000 grit IIRC, starting at 60-80 grit.

I'm sure you will get it done quite nicely but don't expect a complete "chromed" look since it will never look that way.

Here's a pic of some of my work that shows how nicely it shines. I didn't clear coat mine btw and didn't have time to clean anything up before the pics were taken as I drive it every day.




the complete pics can be seen Here

[FastCougar]

I'm sure I could take it somewhere locally and have it buffed to a mirror finish for little money, but the more I think about it, the more I think I will go with 2 coats of high gloss black and 2 coats of clear coat. The car is black and it will really compliment the engine bay. Nothing else in the bay or on the car for that matter if chrome or polished, so I don't think it would really go well with the other brushed aluminum look on the valve covers and the oil pan/timing cover. Here it is after being completely sanded with 240 grit and then hand buffed with fine (00) steel wool.

[warmonger]

If you do try that highlighting of the brushed aluminum look, use a bit of nail polish remover or regular paint thinner with some black model paint. You can get black paint with silver flakes in it and then just spray it into a tin can. Then add some thinner to it so it is nice and thin and take a rag and wipe it across the brushed surface. Then after it begins to dry take a clean rag with some thinner and just wipe lightly to get any paint on the surface off, then let it dry. Several coats may give you look you are after, then use a shot of clear to see the effect. You can always wipe it off and then spray it solid black if you don't like it.