I had all intentions on polishing my water pump but after getting it off it looks like it's gonna be a ton of work to sand off all the rough casting marks and get into all the tight corners. Is it worth the hassle or should I just paint it red. I have polished the thermostat and tensioner already and planned on painting my timing cover red. I could polish it and paint the water pump.

 

If you polish the timing cover you will never be able to maintain it.. FWIW

On my project I will be polishing the water pump.. I found a source to get a 98 pump (removable pulley that I had chromed).. I will then seal the pump with ZOOP Seal.. If you just polish the pump and do not clear it or somehow seal it I feel it will start to look tired very quickly.

Remember there are things you can do appearance wise that will look GREAT the day you install it then its all down hill from there.. always remember to plan the maintanance part as much as you do the bling part <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

Good luck on the project!

 

Brad, I will send you a couple of pics...

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by theblur98ss:
<strong> I had all intentions on polishing my water pump but after getting it off it looks like it's gonna be a ton of work to sand off all the rough casting marks and get into all the tight corners. Is it worth the hassle or should I just paint it red. I have polished the thermostat and tensioner already and planned on painting my timing cover red. I could polish it and paint the water pump. </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Just from my experience, it was the most difficult part to polish. I honestly would not mind polishing it every 2 years but if it ends up annual...that would be tough. I even keep my garage heated at 65 deg all year now to help with keeping the polished parts perfect.

It took me days and days of sanding, buffing out scratches, and finally polishing. It does look great though. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="gr_images/icons/cool.gif" /> The second time around will take a couple hours, that sanding & smoothing is a pain and takes time.

Seriously, the sanding / smoothing take a tremendous amount of time. Repolishing will be a breeze though, if you don't mind taking it off again.

I really want a chrome / polished intake, I have to wait a couple months though.

I love the polished look.

Before...
<img src="http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/275000-275999/275544_22_full.jpg" alt=" - " />

After...
<img src="http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/275000-275999/275544_21_full.jpg" alt=" - " />

Together...
<img src="http://images.cardomain.com/member_img_b/275000-275999/275544_62_full.jpg" alt=" - " />

 

theblur98ss - It shouldn't be too difficult of a part to maintain, my company has polished a few of those over our time. They look much better polished than painted, just a question of if you'd want to worry about maintenance. Another option would just be to dump the work off on to SM Polishing... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> Let me know if you have any questions or anything...

Scott
www.SMPolishing.com

 

Just started trying to polish it and there is no way it's getting done. I just don't have the time or tools required to do a good job on it. I'll just throw some paint to it.