Well, I am about 10 hours into the polish now and that's the initial prep done - doing the grinding and shaping required to remove the castings and other unattractive features.

 

My plenum casting was not very impressive to say the least - very pitted.

 

And I have moved a lot of metal to get to where I am now.

 

I estimate about another 8-10 hours at 120/200 grit wet and dry (hand and mouse) and then maybe 8-10 hours with the polishing wheels. So 30ish hours total.

 

I am not going any parts that will not be seen - life is too short. :nono:

 

 

I completed the balance bar in about 3 hours total - pics later.

 

TOOLS: Most useful has been the Power File, but also the mouse, various size and shapes of wire wheel used in a drill, various files, Dremel, angle grinder and a 3" and a 5" sanding disk for the initial 60 or 80 grit work.

 

COST: Consummables so far - £14.00 on velcro disks, £12.00 on Power file bands and about £10.00 on Mouse pads. Plus £20.00 on Dremel bits and about £20.00 on polishing kit/abrasive blocks etc.

 

Hope that inspires someone to go for it themselves - will post some final pics when done.

That's awesome! Nice work chap.

 

I'd love to do mine. My engine bay is a state. I'm far too lazy to put all that hard work in though lol

i would do that sort of thing .. but i get bored easy

 

looks great though

if i had a car with it already done i am great keeping them clean.. just not getting them to that stage

It takes forever dosnt it :(

 

Well worth it though and its starting to look really good. once it is all back together you dont really see that much of it anyway :)

I'm not a big fan of the polished look (as it would show up how bad the rest of my engine is), what I did was get mine bead blasted and chemically cleaned - came up really well.

Hi Andy - very sensible - but when your waiting for other bits to arrive/get made/chromed then one has to have something to do whilst waiting, and waiting and waiting ha ha lol.

Jeez - you joined before in Feb 2001 - not many of us left man!

Looking good bud , I,ve done a couple , it is a dirty and time consuming job , but worth it IMO :hyper:

wow, boldy that is very impressive mate

thats really impressive...how much do you want for it...

 

Ric

Wow - That's what I aspire to - but I am almost sure that mine will NOT be as good as that. That's a brilliant job. Well done - respect. Wanna swap ;-))

 

I'm sneezing buffing wheel material outta my nose, cit's stuck in my my hair, eybrows - everywhere - it's not very attractive - buffing 3 hours - showering 2 hours ha ha lol

 

Buffy the Plenum slayer I am not!!

..As a side note - my scrummie honey was just looking over my shoulder and she says you should spend more time rubbing linseed oil into your patio furniture - and less time pumping your plenum teh! Girls!

..As a side note - my scrummie honey was just looking over my shoulder and she says you should spend more time rubbing linseed oil into your patio furniture - and less time pumping your plenum teh! Girls!

 

:rofl:

 

 

But i must say Boldy 10 out of 10 for that mate thats the dogs dangly bits ...;)

Edited August 6, 200916 yr by zedwizz

..As a side note - my scrummie honey was just looking over my shoulder and she says you should spend more time rubbing linseed oil into your patio furniture - and less time pumping your plenum teh! Girls!

 

Not a great deal of time this weekend but managed to grab 3 or 4 hours on Sunday to get some stuff done. The belt is on, the cam covers have been powder coated and are ready to fit - just waiting SS bolts. I am still playing with fuel rails so thats going nowhere right now. Will put the front water pipes back on this week, unorthodox pulley is on. Need to buy new shorter belts for water, alternator and steering pump. HICAS is completely out, EGR is deleted, Plenum water bypass is done and the pcv re-route is complete. AIV's are gone, carbon cannister is gone PRVR has gone, CATS are gone!

Fitted new O2 sensors, so just awaiting plenum polish to be 100% ready and for the CAS to come back from Mr Chrome and then the plenum pull can complete.

 

Then I start to re-plumb the FMIC, fit the new RAD/electric Fan and the new Oil and Tranny rads which are going where the old SMIC's used to live.

 

Couple of quick pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still a lot to do/spend - but I can see some light at the end of the tunnel now.

Thanks for looking. :hyper:

nice work there Andy cant wait to see the plenum on.

very very nice well done

Top job there maty

Andy , you engine looks the mutts :bow::bow:

Thanks all for the kind comments about my polishing job , i used different grades of discs on a D.A sander , starting with 80 grit , 120 grit, 180 grit and finally 320 grit before going at it with a polishing kit .Also used a small belt sander and a Dremel to get into the nooks and crannys , alot of work but worth it :D:D.

Piccy of it fitted

Looking good buddy!!

..apart from the fact everything is BLUE and not RED!!

 

 

 

 

Ha ha - just kidding man - great job - looks fab.

That's great work Andy, well done mate :D

Plenum has been/will be interrupted by a few weeks in Turkey sadly lol - I think I might leave it on BOLDY's doorstep before I fly away and see if it magically transforms for when I get back! ;-))

...This should help with some of the smaller bits n bobs...

 

Plenum has been/will be interrupted by a few weeks in Turkey sadly lol - I think I might leave it on BOLDY's doorstep before I fly away and see if it magically transforms for when I get back! ;-))

 

Oh damn i,ve forgot how to read :tongue::tongue::D

Well I thought I would try out my new toy as above - and I got from the standard (straight off the engine) dull grey look to this in 40 mins - that's about 20 mins each with a brown mop and a white mop - nothing in between, no sand paper, wire wheel. Can't see in the picture very well but I can see my ugly mug in the reflection pretty good.

 

 

Probably not good enough - but closer than I expected. The right tools sure do help!!

Well I thought I would try out my new toy as above - and I got from the standard (straight off the engine) dull grey look to this in 40 mins - that's about 20 mins each with a brown mop and a white mop - nothing in between, no sand paper, wire wheel. Can't see in the picture very well but I can see my ugly mug in the reflection pretty good.

 

 

Probably not good enough - but closer than I expected. The right tools sure do help!!

 

Looking good so far!

Get your self some dremel emry wheels and then some felt polishing wheels and finally some cloth polising wheels with usual brown and blue bars and you will be able to get in between the ridges on the throttle boddies. It looks really good if you can get in there (not that I'm obsessed or anything!!)

 

Andy