Luna

iTrader: (6)

Ok guys, I'm working on my polishing my valve covers, I've made quite a bit of progress but I need some tips.

-Whats the best way to get into all the little corners and tight spaces?
-Whats the best way to get through the casting flash without causing more problems?

Right now I am wetsanding with some 220grit sandpaper to do most of the work and my dremel with some crappy sanding attachments to try to get through the casting flash in alot of places, but I can't get the dremel everywhere.

So what should I be using?

Here's some pics of the progress so far

planemech2

Best tool for sanding is the Mk 1 Mod 1 hand and fingers. It takes alot of work to get the casting marks out, but worth the effort. I did my rocker covers 3 yrs ago with 180 up to 400 grit wet paper. Then buffing wheels on an electric drill with several compounds. Eastwood has plenty of choices to use. Took me most of the winter to remove, polish and reinstall my r/c's, MAF ends and fuel manifold. Really worth the time it took. Put on a good coat of Mothers polish before installing and they will look good for quite some time.

bsf

iTrader: (7)

I polished my TB, and all the tight spaces are killers.

For those tight spaces I used some a Dremel with abrasive barrels; an electric drill motor with abrasive cones; lots of pieces of folded sandpaper; and Dremel-mounted mini buffing cones and wheels. The abrasive barrels and cones only go so far, as I could not get them in a fine enough grit. Even with a ridiculous amount of time spent, it still does not have that super shiny chrome appearance. I know of know easy way to make the tight areas look like chrome.

Joshua is some kind of aluminum polishing phenom. I have no idea how he is able to turn out work like is depicted on his business website and have any kind of reasonable financial return per hour spent.

Luna

iTrader: (6)

Maybe Josh the bling king himself will chime in with some tips.

PunishedU

iTrader: (1)

Where do you get those cones? I cant find any anywhere?

Luna

iTrader: (6)

Eastwood has them

Beasst8

iTrader: (1)

YEP, Eastwood has everything you need to do that project.

Irocss85

iTrader: (1)

Im in the same process as you, except I think IM goin to powdercoat the valve covers. Im polishing the waterpump, throttle body, maf ends, and belt tens. Ive already sanded my valve covers smooth, and with all the time I spent on them so far, might just go ahead the extra step and polish the valve covers too. looks like your perimter bolt covers are much harder to do then my newer style ones. I used a die grinder with sand paper drums to get rid of most of the casting flash, then learned the only way to get a smooth flat finish is hand sanding. started with 150 grit. that removes material pretty quick but leaves deep sand paper scratches. next up would be 220 grit to sand out the deep scratches. this will leave a pretty smooth surface, but still lots of fine scratches. just have to progress to finer and finer grits from there. dont skimp out, buy lots of diff. grits and progressivly work your way to 2000 grit. lots more steps, but will come out lots better, and less work believe it or not. then you can start the actual polishing steps.

Luna

iTrader: (6)

Any ideas where I can find lower grits wet sandpaper? The lowest grit wet/dry I can find is 220 and dry paper doesnt last too long.

~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

My $130 price/pair doesn't seem too bad now does it?

It takes about 8 hours each with a mission in mind. GM castings are absolute garbage, it's no wonder you're having this trouble. (Full of air pockets and irregular alloy shift)
I start with rolls, and a flap wheel (120 grit) and then hit the corners around the lugs with 220/320.... then the real work starts, you must break it all up with 400 grit by hand (they don't make power rolls finer than 320) after the 400 go to 800, then 1000.... then the power buffers. (Rough, med, then final buff)

If you need one on one coaching/help call my cell ~Joshua 678/492/6843
After the work....

Superman09

iTrader: (65)

Josh is the man Valvecovers are a PITA to do as Josh said, polishing requires TONs of time... send your stuff to Josh for best results, i'm guessing you'll spend Josh's price doing the valve covers by buying all the tools, sandpaper, polish, beers and all the crap you break out of frusteration, haha. I know when i want to venture more into polishing, the valvecovers will be done by Joshua.

Irocss85

iTrader: (1)

I'll tell you that price makes this not worth doin if you have the cash to spend. I already have the tools (exc. some of the buffing stuff I had to buy) thanks to my head porting experience. but as I mentioned above, you gotta do most of the work by hand. with little F'n pieces of sand paper at a time. joshua thos covers look amazing. I'll post a pic of where mine ar now. still trying to decide if I should just go ahead and finish polishing the covers instead of powder coating. if I painted the intake black instead of silver, Id def. just finish the polishing. but I dont think a silver intake would look good next to polished valve covers. ofcourse, its already goin to be next to my polished tbody and other stuff. hmmm.

Irocss85

iTrader: (1)

here's where im at. these parts are about 5 deg. too cause theve been in my car since sat noon. so there a little frosty. lol. the valve cover was actually sticking to my hand when I grabbed it.

bsf

iTrader: (7)

I think I need a new paradigm. I was operating under the premise that I needed to pay Joshua a fair, yet still somewhat expensive, sum or spend a ridiculous amount of time myself for polishing. At this point, the results of my efforts are still a crap shoot.

Maybe I should take advantage of the unwillingness of our elected officials to undertake any sort of meaningful border enforcement/immigration reform. I wonder if there are any undocumented visitors who would like to try their hand at polishing for 70% of minimum wage and all the Mr. Pips they can drink.

JK. Do not get your panties all bunched up. I was just remembering a bit of tv cartoon sitcom I watched while doing chores.

~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

^^^ Si Senor!


j/k... I'm not latin.

Luna

iTrader: (6)

Damn I wish I had centerbolt valvecovers, they look alot easier to work on!

Irocss85

iTrader: (1)

funny, thats exactly what thought. damn Im glad I got centerbolts to work on. there alot easier to do. lol. just keep pluggin away.

I just started the white rouge with a medium buffer pad in my die grinder and DAMN what a difference. almost chrome like. I started on the waterpump first, but I need to get a dremel to use these 1/8" shank pointy pads to get into the corners by the webbing. but its 90% done. then I went ahead and did that on the tbody and maf ends it looks great. I'll get a shot of the buffer pads Im using you should get the same thing for when you get to that step. they work great. exp. though. around $4-8 each.

hey joshua, how bout some pics of the tools you use and where do you get your supplies from? I got my stuff from a "production tool" store by me.

Danny2tek

iTrader: (1)

What kind of maintenance is needed? I like to hose down the enginge compartment once in awhile will that screw them up?

barnat

iTrader: (59)

hey man i hate to even say this because of all the work it seems that you already have into them and i know because i polish everthing that can be, ha ha .But for real, polished alum dosnt hold up to well in engine bay or anywhere else to be blunt whithout maint, unless cleared. I was right where your at when I decided to ceramic coat mine and I tell you what, They looked great, and cleaned up with just water ,and still have that polished alum look more so then crome My other buddy powder coated his black then ceramic coated his coil pack brackets then installed his Red MSD packs with the red wires and his intake was base cleared with that sebring silver Its the sweetest coler sceam Ive seen to date and when cruise time is here he just hoses n goes.

~JOSHUA

iTrader: (92)

Irocss85- I've been using a shop for a lot of my work lately. They've got heavy duty 10hp motors with 18" diameter buffs.

No chance in hell of a regular guy getting access to that kind of stuff.

It makes the average home buffing wheel look like a Mickey Mouse toy.