Hey guys, I think I bit off more than I can chew on this one. I have an aluminum '69 Z28 high rise intake manifold that was looking really shoddy (had acid etch and corrosion) and I decided to knock down the cast surface and polish the thing. At this point I just need to be able to send this to someone to get it finished. I have about 15 hours into it stripping it by hand. I have most surfaces stripped to smooth with 220 grit, but some of the harder to get to surfaces (about 10% of the whole manifold) are still as cast. I would like to find a company or individual who can finish this for me. A friend told me that down in the Concord area and Stockton areas he has found guys that would do it start to finish for around $200, but can't find his contacts. I am just hoping to find someone who can finish what I started. This is obviously over 40 years old and I do not expect perfection...I just want it to look decent and I don't have the time to finish it considering all of the other aspects of my build that I have going on. Price is somewhat a consideration, and I have done about 50% of the work (most of the hard work for sure), but if any of you can find a resource and get me contact info that would be awesome.
no shops in your area? believe it or not we have a bunch here but i dont know what they would charge?
I'm in a small town and have no idea where to find one down the hill in Sacramento. I think population density helps with the availability of these types of businesses. Any phone numbers?
hope this helps? 6635 Florence Avenue #335 Bell Gardens, CA 90201 (562) 806-6252 3430 Union Pacific Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90023 (323) 269-0222 15125 Illinois Avenue Paramount, CA 90723 (562) 634-9031 1156 North Kraemer Place Anaheim, CA 92806 (714) 632-0121 13100 Yukon Avenue Hawthorne, CA 90250 (818) 845-6964 13149 Sherman Way North Hollywood, CA 91605 (818) 982-0375
It also needs a bit of smoothing done, and needs to be brought from 220 grit up to 1500 or so before polishing, so it's more involved than just taking a buffing wheel to it.
Eastwood tool sell's all the stuff to do it. Arbors for your die grinder, little rolls of sandpaper for the hard to reach spots. They should have a starter kit. I remember one time I thought I would make my fortune doing that kind of stuff. It is about the dirtiest thing to do in the car business. But it can be fun, You can see progress every step on the way.
Exactly how fine a part needs to be polished before buffing will depend on the particular part and how it needs to look. For an intake manifold a good 220 finish is fine. For something like an intake you won't often find metal finishers going to 1500, not even on the highest level show work. If you have the part contoured and well polished it may be ready for buffing as it is. I hope you used a lubricant when polishing/sanding. If not, granuals of abrasive can be embedded in the aluminum and cause imperfections in the final finish.
Well damnit, I didn't. I guess I'll need to do that and go over the whole thing yet again... The never ending story.
Give Sacramento Kustoms a call. Jesse does nice work and repair/polishing is one of his specialties. He's here on the HAMB or give him a call. 916-475-5531 769 N 16th St Sacramento, CA 95811
I hope you used a lubricant when polishing/sanding. If not, granuals of abrasive can be embedded in the aluminum and cause imperfections in the final finish.[/QUOTE] If you are using a silicon type abrasive you will not need to use any type of lubricant, also if you are doing hand sanding and not high speed with a dremel or die grinder no lubricant is really needed but spray silicon does make it sand easier(IMHO).
Any kind of abrasive, including aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, garnet, or ceramic, can leave particles in aluminum. That doesn't change whether it is in the form of stones, sandpaper, abrasive belts, sanding discs, etc. The best lube is the waxy grease made for abrasive sanding belts or the stick lube made for bandsaw blades. But, I have seen motor oil, ATF, candle wax, paste car wax, and chassis grease used with acceptable results. Flap wheels won't make a surface as flat and smooth as cartridge rolls, sanding drums, and flexible disc. But, those require more skill to use effectively.
I just looked up "cartridge rolls" and now know whqt they are. I can see why they would work better than flap wheels and sanding drums. Now I just need t find them somewhere locally, but most likely I'll need to order them.
Try Sherms Plating in Sacto, not cheap but it's the best chrome in the West. They do polishing i believe...
I finish everything to 400 for polishing, and I have a polishing company, just a little to far away to be any help in this case!
Where about in Northern Cali? I take all of my stuff to All Bumper repair in Marysville, very good quality and reasonable prices
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