Polishing the inlet manifold

[Gary G]

I bought a carbon fibre engine cover which spends most of its life under the stairs but in the time it was fitted it caused etchings in the metal...like smooth lines where its moved and worn/smoothed the metal. Early this evening i had the bonnet open and during this time i spied a bit of green sand paper on the bench and decided to see what effect it had on the metal....i tried it on a bit and managed to create a nice smooth area in no time at all but before getting carried away thought id ask on here if theres a RIGHT way of doing it, when i say right i mean what sand paper i should use or which dremel atatchment works well? Only wanna do the four branches of the manifold 1. because thats where the marks caused by the cover are and 2. because im lazy lol. I wont be removing it so should i mask around the area as to not make a complete mess of the engine bay? What can go wrong? lol. cheers

 

[Fred@BTM]

cough, ill do it for you??? itll take ages doing it by hand

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/Fredmrsclio/IMG_1053.jpg

 

[Gary G]

Looks good Fred Thats all id do...just the four branch bits. Thing is my manifold has been fettled by Ben and correctly positioned, Andy said i should leave it alone as knowing me i wouldnt be able to get it back in exactly the right place! lol.

Did you use a dremel or the likes to do that? I reakon i could do it in a day...just me, a bit of sand paper and alot of blood sweat and tears lol. Tbh if it was standard then i wouldnt hesitate having one off you!

 

[BRUN]

if Ben has messed with it, leave it in place

performance over appearance is my opinion

 

[Fred@BTM]

no as i said mate, i can lend you one, while i do you AWT one

i did that using an air polisher, took around 4hours just to do the runners

 

[BenR]

what you really want is to send it off to someone with a superfinishing tank, bung it in there for an hour, then remove a mirror finish manifold. Will work better if you shot blast it first with very very fine media.

 

[Gary G]

Ben, is it ok to remove it tho? Has it not been specially positioned to get the best from the work you did?

 

[yeecup]

it can only go on one way!! its the inside hes fettled taking it off wont make a difference.

 

[Lagerlout]

Surely if its not ut back in exactly the same place, the matching will be out??

It may only be a few thou, but it might be enough to affect it?/

 

[Gary G]

Obviously it can only go on one way lol, im not a complete numpty But as lagerlout says, it has to be lined up correctly as a few thous would prob make a difference!

 

[skinner]

Cant you just dowel it, then it will go back in the same place? Looks like flange is big enough to fit a couple.

 

[BenR]

You can dowel it yes, plenty of space.

The system is designed for the top to go on easily.

Just give me a call when it comes to putting it back on and ill explain how, its simple.

 

[Tom]

Paint it racing blue