What started out as a timing belt/water pump change evolved, as these things tend to do in my garage, into a far bigger cleanup/fix/replace/prettify job. The OP had painted the manifold gloss black, but I decided that needed to go. A late night and some consciousness-expanding substances caused me to break out the paint stripper and some metal polishing tools. I ground off the molding lugs and seam lines, then started the LONG (25 hours) process of polishing out the intake runners.
This shows the process as it progressed through various levels of sanding, grinding, and polishing with buffing compound and finally, Mother's Wheel Polish, each time making big scratches into smaller scratches. It was tedious.
Yesterday, I finally had this:
I bought as set of $200 long-tube stainless headers--surprisingly good quality--and the plan is to make the intake runners approximate the finish of the exhaust tubes. I'll paint the rest of the manifold in wrinkle finish black, so just the runners stand out. The valve cover will get wrinkle finish too, but probably in red.
Terry
This shows the process as it progressed through various levels of sanding, grinding, and polishing with buffing compound and finally, Mother's Wheel Polish, each time making big scratches into smaller scratches. It was tedious.
Yesterday, I finally had this:
I bought as set of $200 long-tube stainless headers--surprisingly good quality--and the plan is to make the intake runners approximate the finish of the exhaust tubes. I'll paint the rest of the manifold in wrinkle finish black, so just the runners stand out. The valve cover will get wrinkle finish too, but probably in red.
Terry
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