How do you get your 172 engine polished up shiny ?

[kie1an]

as above . is there a way of doing it yourself . looks great imo

 

[theduck]

lots of elbow grease. basically lots of various grades of wet and dry and lots of work.

 

[kie1an]

so i need to obviously take my engine cover off and use wet and dry sand paper to take it right down to the bare metal ? is this a day job ? a everytime you get spare time do a bit more job ?

 

[cat171]

Find someone with a polished plenum etc & buy it off them, they might want your old one though. Or get a spare one & get it machine polished.

 

[theduck]

everytime you get spare time for a week or more job

 

[kie1an]

Find someone with a polished plenum etc & buy it off them, they might want your old one though. Or get a spare one & get it machine polished.

iv seen one in the forsale section , but its sold now ! wouldnt mind having a crack at it myself so i can say i done that tbh . although i am quite lazy !

 

[cat171]

Fire up an ad in the wanted section. It'll take you a fair while to do it by hand, plus you'll be knackered from it or you could machine polish it yourself if you buy the tools.

 

[kie1an]

without sounding too clueless what bits would i need to machine polish ? . when the mrs is in work i might crack on with tying to sand it back , although the neighbours will wonder what the hell im playing at . any particular grade to use ? fine ? thick ?

 

[clvs2222]

i sold one last week mate. the ph1 is different than the ph2 though iirc. do it yourself, its alot of hard graft but well worth it. get a sander on it to remove all the top crap and then go through the grades of wet and dry untill your satisfied its shiny enough. you'll need to take it off though to do it propily. you could do it in a day if you've got the patience. be carfull of the letters though as they are very soft.

 

[kie1an]

how do you take it off is it a big job or just bolts ? is the plenum not the top cover of the engine or am i talking s**t lol

 

[clvs2222]

if you want me to pop up and take it off for you, its not a problem mate. im off all week anywho. plus iv got the detailing sander here you need to take most of it off.

 

[kie1an]

sometime if you didnt mind that would be great , only problem is the car has been in the garage today and will be until wednesday then thursday im off on holiday so wont be around . but yes sometime in the future would be good if you could help me take it off .

 

[clvs2222]

ai, give me a shout. its in having the problems fixed isi?

 

[kie1an]

certainly is , i said i dont want it back until i think its spot on ...so they have their work cut out . they seem to be ok about it too :S

 

[clvs2222]

hmmm.........they do'in it themselfs? or renault?

 

[cat171]

I'd buy a spare one to polish up tbh. That way you can still use your car (when you get it back)

 

[kie1an]

theyre doing it themselves although they said they are getting a sparcky to come in and have a look at a few things as non of them are good with electrics just mechanics lol filled my with confidence . you live and learn with cars . although i am very happy with it .

 

[kie1an]

I'd buy a spare one to polish up tbh. That way you can still use your car (when you get it back)

yes an idea will do a bit of ebay searching now . and keep a lookout .

 

[Tucker]

you want a wire wheel or corse wire drill head,

some emery cloth and a couple grades from p400 to p100

also some metal polish

then just crack on working down a grade.

will take you a week, if you're man enough!

 

[kie1an]

so put the wire brush in the drill and try and get as much s**t off the surface as possible then .

 

[clvs2222]

^^ A week? you serios? it took me a day. used p250 dry on a sander, then p600 dry, 1200 wet and dry by hand and striaght to p3000 wet and dry. then autosol.used a wet stone head on a dremel fo between the lettering.

 

[osbid172]

clvs2222
The polish is well underway - plenty of dremel action so far - should be on the emery by the end of the week - 30 mins a day - doing it in work - not looking forward to the between the letters tho.
K
you can always take a look at mine for a work in progress