Took many items off my engine and have sent them to a metal polisher just a few miles from me and below are the results of his and my work :cool3:.

 

This is my aftermarket radiator bracket, it was or is stainless steel but now highly polished. The SLICKTOP plate was made by TwinTurboRich and I've had this powder coated and bolts on with some stainless steel allen capped nuts and bolts.

 

 

This is my Tokyo Auto cooling panel, original these come in silver or blue from z32-zone in Japan, mine was silver and the polisher told me it was anodized but now polished up as you can see. The logo was originally silver and riveted on, I drilled these out and had it powder coated, again bolted on using the same attractive stainless bolts.

 

 

Then the usual polished up water pipes, these will be used with red silicone hoses and mikalor t-clamps

 

 

Finally for this post, had my Altia sills polished, this removed many many scratches incurred from over the years, now I have a mirror finish.

 

So you going polished not powder coated then?

So you going polished not powder coated then?

 

I am not bud, I am taking out all imperfections and knobbly bits and then I want the finish to be as near perfect as possible, so it will end up polished but I am sticking with a gunmetal powder coating, rockers and balance tube will also have the powder finish but will be near as chrome as is possible for a coaters, so will give me a little contrast.

I am contemplating doing the front water pipes in the gunmetal to match the plenum - as you well know I have two sets here all polished at the moment ready to go :thumbup:.

 

EDIT : Btw, the throttle bodies, etc will be polished.

I am not bud, I am taking out all imperfections and knobbly bits and then I want the finish to be as near perfect as possible, so it will end up polished but I am sticking with a gunmetal powder coating, rockers and balance tube will also have the powder finish but will be near as chrome as is possible for a coaters, so will give me a little contrast.

I am contemplating doing the front water pipes in the gunmetal to match the plenum - as you well know I have two sets here all polished at the moment ready to go :thumbup:.

 

EDIT : Btw, the throttle bodies, etc will be polished.

 

Hi phutumsch, hope your doing fine your work looks really good I wish I could do that to my zed, I just want to ask not sure if you have seen my thread that I posted up but was wondering could you make or supply me a 99 spec rear lights with led's built in if possible and a 99 spec led light up rear centre panel by any chance my email address is makaveli996@hotmail.co.uk if you world like to send me pics and discuss prices. I will look forward to your reply. Thanks Regards Danny

Answered via email post 29.

 

Having a plenum still in the car I kept refering to it and seeing which areas were visible and needed the most attention and so after a little more dremel work, I took to the fingers, starting off at grit 36, then 80, 120, 240, 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and finally 2500, after about 4 hours I have it very very smooth and I expect more than good enough for a superb powder coated finish.

 

I only polished up with the denim mop and a little wet G3 in a small area just to prove to myself that I can do it, here's a pic.

 

Nice work Andy ill come over and check your work this weekend and have a brew of course, if your in that is ??

And if id have taken that down as far as 2500 grit then it would be going for chrome not powder coat.

Edited May 16, 201411 yr by Iangreenfield

I bet your hands have had it, I did the lips on my wheels and I had no skin left,

 

Looks really good...

I bet your hands have had it, I did the lips on my wheels and I had no skin left,

 

Looks really good...

 

Not too bad actually, fingers are aching a tad but I do have skin, I've never seen as much wrist action since I was a teenager !!!

 

Nice work Andy ill come over and check your work this weekend and have a brew of course, if your in that is ??

And if id have taken that down as far as 2500 grit then it would be going for chrome not powder coat.

 

No plans on going out, in fact I have my balance bar to remove and prep and also to polish the throttle bodies, linkages, etc.

 

You are probably right on the 2500, I have rubbed the plenum again here and there today with 400 grit and just left it at that this time, if my powder coater guy says it needs to be better as it'll show, I shall return back to the sink.

 

My rockers are practically ready as they are and these will be a chrome look powder coat, just gave the front bits (don't know what they're called !!) some special attention as these are very visible once fit, just rounds them off a bit also :thumbup1:.

 

Edited May 17, 201411 yr by phutumsch
Picture added.

Oooh Very nice :)

Nice work!! I'm no expert but would have thought 400 grit was plenty fine enough for powder coating? I await to be shot down :crying:

Ready for dropping items off at the powder coaters now, balance bars are already smooth so this as just been wire wheeled, this will done in chrome.

 

 

I found I also got good results with the wire wheel on the throttle bodies/linkages, then I did put a touch of polish on and ran the polishing denim wheel on them, paying special attention to the visible parts which isn't much btw, so I have these just really clean :thumbup1:.

 

 

I have bought some new bolts and offered them in for this pic.

 

Great work Andy, it all looks fantastic. Looking forward to seeing the gunmetal plenum all fitted up... :thumbup:

Cleeeeaan!

I got news from my powder coating place late on Friday that my goods were ready, I have had the long weekend to wait until today. I picked them up and just basically put them in the car, unwrapped them on arriving home and well.....I am truly delighted, the pics don't do these justice:thumbup1:.

 

First the water pipes

 

 

 

Balance bar, same as water pipes, chrome silver is the powder coat colour. I have some stainless dome nuts to use when securing this down :thumbup1:.

 

 

chrome powder coat then

Moving on to the rocker covers

 

 

 

Now you will have to picture in your mind the contrast I am going to have with the powder coated chrome, the polished and the chrome plated all against this beautiful gunmetal grey (metallic black) plenum. It seems all my prep work was well worth it !!

 

I have everything now to take all this to Denty's to fit next month.......cannot wait :wink:.

 

 

Sweeeet nice work andy hope you have some skin left on yr fingers tho

Fantastic quality of work there with the prep and coaters...thats the same colour i done my UK rims which Tom (Mogsy) has now. Gives a really bright finnish without the hassle of re-polishing every 5 hours. Great Job Andy:thumbup1:

just out of interest did you look in to doing it with real chrome ?

All your bits look great,

Couldn't they just blast them I gave mine to my bro in law to do and the powder coat covered the cast marks, with no sanding.

 

powder coat chrome is really good, my water pipes are done in it and its easy to clean literally just wipe it clean or polish it...

Polished plenums I reckon u would be forever polishing it,

And I hate real chrome because it looks stunning but u can see every bloody finger print and would probably drive u insane,

 

The powder coat I have if u look really close its a tiny bit milky but move back a foot and it looks chrome but can't notice any finger prints.

real chrome watch this space

real chrome watch this space

 

Dont do it Dan....its too 1970,s. It reminds me of Morris headlight bezzels and Rover bumpers:wheelchair:

I do have some chrome plated stuff in this thread, I wanted some contrast, don't want everything the same either polished or plated.

 

And as Terry said I do not want the upkeep, some of the cast marks are very noticeable so blasting is not an option, you need to get the file out !!

 

Looking at this chrome powder finish today, I'm not sure why anyone would bother polishing there plenum :sweatdrop:.

Dont do it Dan....its too 1970,s. It reminds me of Morris headlight bezzels and Rover bumpers:wheelchair:

 

 

you don't like this bri come on am doing this

you don't like this bri come on am doing this

 

Jason farrows plenum was shiney like that, his powder coated it now,

His words were its to much hard work and he never drives it everyday or in the rain and polishes it so much I can't believe anything on the car has paint left lol...

Edited May 27, 201411 yr by Terry

I can under stand a polished one fades but chrome wont am doing it sod it