So I bought this intake and carbs off of Titus here on the HAMB, and it came all assembled, but I wanted to polish it up in my vibratory tub. I was going to disassemled it and run the carbs and intake seperately, and then I said to myself "Self, why don't you try running the whole thing together?" Well I did, and it came out pretty spiffy, and it saved me eight hours of run time. Is there media in the carbs? Yes. Did the carbs need rebuilding anyway? Yes. A little media in there bugs me not in the least. Two of them are stuck anyway, so they're going to need a soak. It's nice when things go easy for a change.
cool man, SO cool... cant wait to get you my intake and carbs, guess we can do the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I run them seperately I do the same amount of time for each to keep everything even. Not every intake is going to fit with the carbs on, but when it works, and the carbs need a rebuild anyway, it's not a bad option.
for the love of got brotha'! Please push return between those pictures so we're not scrolling... BTW... the vibratory finish really looks nice on there!
OK, space added between pics. Just waiting to get some more '59' carbs so that the intake has a matched set.
stupid question - when you polish an intake without the carbs on - does it "Clean" the inside of the intake as well??? or not really??? I don't really want to polish the intake as I like that "Cast" look - but want to clean the intake up I was thinking about having my Intake "Airless Shot Blasted" but thought that it might be too harsh on the Aluminum - as my machine shop has the machine but they mostly use it for blocks & heads
FWEW!! Thanks! That was hurting my eyes! Very cool man! You must get tons of biz with that polisher, huh?!
A good Glass bead blasting will "clean" your parts and make them look brand new, while keeping the as cast finish, this works great in the ports and under the carb. Good question.
Vibratory finishing doesn't really get the internal surfaces smoothed much. The media has to flow over an area to work, and the flow is really restricted inside the runners. It may help a bit, but I'd not count on seeing any performance increase.
Media blasting with walnut shell works nicely on aluminum, but glass beads can get too aggressive and leave the piece very hard to polish. Polishing is achieved by smoothing the metal, and media blasting can roughen it up more than it is in the 'raw' cast state. Offenhauser parts are especially susceptible to damage from aggressive media blasting. If you have any intent on polishing in the future, or want to preserve the real cast look, stick with walnut shell or no blasting at all.
You must get tons of biz with that polisher, huh?! I wish that was the case. I've got plenty of open machine time...
Does anybody make a polisher a little bigger than yours to fit wheels? I only found one, from MSC for over 3 grand! http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1795944&PMT4NO=14060831
That would be a cheap one! I've not even looked into the price of the bigger machines. The company I bought from will build anything you want, but I'm sure it gets quite costly. Here's where mine came from: www.giantfinishing.com
What does it cost to get stuff polished? Lets say I brought in that carb and intake combo what would it run me? I read the website but I dont know how long the stuff has to stay in the machine. I always assumed it too much to worry about on a budget, but I really like how the stuff looks.
$75.00 plus your shipping costs, and you can add two or three small parts like an extra carb or two, fuel block, blocking plates, brackets etc. for no extra charge.
That's one way. Eastwood has clear spray paint to seal the finish. The other way to seal it would be a chemical seal like Zoops seal, yes, they make billet parts, but it will seal for a year. The old fashioned way is just to keep polishing or waxing it on a regular basis.
Anyway, one last kick to the top for this thread. I got the intake fitted with matching '59' series Holley 94's now instead of the original mishmash of an 8ba, 59, and ECG. The sun was starting to go down as I got the pics, but maybe the golden light is an artistic touch....
The round vib unit I got from harbor f doesn't work well at all. I bought their green triangel media and left it on for 2-3 hrs. Should I be able to polish something in it? Different media? Thanks
You have to have a setup that will run the media wet. Some of the table top units are dry only- mostly for jewelry and gun cartridges. I use green plastic media for the cut-down phase (with enough water to keep everything clean), and it's ideal for aluminum. I use a special ground corn cob media with polish in it for the actual polishing step. I'd say any machine with less than 3 cubic feet of media capacity is a toy, and not really useful for automotive uses. My machine is a 5 cubic foot tub style, and I'd love to have a bigger one.
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