Polishing an aluminum intake manifold

I like the looks of a polished intake manifold and plan on putting a new Edelbrock Performer on my engine sometime this summer so I was thinking of polishing it. Just wondering if anyone here has polished their own manifold and if so, how did you go about it and how difficult was it?

Spend the money and get the already polished version they sell. You could work a week straight on the thing to get it polished.

I already have the manifold and I am not going to spend an additional $525 for another manifold. If it is too much work to do I will just leave it raw or paint it.

possibly get it powder coated/ceramic coated in a chrome like finish ? may be a better alternative than trying to polish, then maintain it afterward ?

Personally I've yet to see a ceramic coated intake that looked half decent - just my opinion.

Polishing takes forever, you'll spend a bundle on the various "tootsie rolls" and in the end you'll probably still not be satisfied.

With intakes I usually knock all the casting flash and boogers off and paint them.

The process of polishing aluminum is simply to make it smooth (as glass). Simply start with a medium that will remove the roughness (maybe 150 grit?) and then move to less and less abrasive material. In the end, before the polishing wheel, you need to be sanding (smoothing) with 1500 - 2000 grit paper. Of course, the challenge with a manifold is all the nooks and crannies. You'll have to get creative for some areas (dremel?) It probably will take a week...BUT, once it's done, it's done. Just the occasional touch up... Get after it!

Also remember half of the aluminium dust ends up in most of your body's orifices... Don't polish nekkid! At least wear face-protection

It's one of those things you'll do only once in your life, just to have it 'done once in your life'.

Total waste of one's time. I'd rather mow the lawn, rearrange my sock drawer, watch a nascar race and get a root canal.

You sure about Nascar?
At least with your other activities you get some workout either by pushing, shoving or squirming on the dentists seat...

You might drop 340SIX a PM. I believe he's big into polishing and could probably give you some hints.


Tim

A dual plane intake like your Performer will be a BUNCH harder to polish than a single plane.

I polished my Eddy Victor 383 single plane. It took several nights of work. It came out nice and I like it. I hit it with Never-Dull at the beginning of each season just to get it looking great again. I was in the same oat as you ... I had the manifold and didn't want to pay $250 to get it polished so I just took my time and did it myself.

What about tumble/barrel finishing? This process is used to polish rims and should work on an intake manifold as well. Just drop it off at a shop that refurbishes rims and don't worry about dust, time etc.
Shouldn't be too expensive..

Tumble/barrel/vibratory finishing won't work on that. Wheels are smooth to start with. You can do that with vibratory. Intake manifolds are a sand casting (rough). Tumble/barrel/vibratory is to enhance the finish of the surface that is already there. They are not to remove metal.

Rumblefish, do you remember the grit/material you started off with? Any tips or things to avoid?

Yours looks good. My man is $450. It looks good when he gets done but the price hurts.