Polish or paint

Polish or paint?


  • Total voters
    54

Grims95SC

Registered User
I've done a large amount of the sanding on my upper IC tube and blower top. What I'm wondering is leave it all bare metal or paint inbetween the letters and lines to make them stand out more. With it all bare they don't pop out but I dunno how well the black would look in there. Anyway here's a pic of how it looks so far and a photoshoped version of it with paint. What do ya guys think?
533918_76_full.jpg

533918_75_full.jpg
 
I polished mine, but left the recessed area below the letters unfinished for contrast.
 
Here's a pic. I've also polished the lower IC tube, & the manifold adapter. Just haven't put them on yet.
 

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NorthrnSCownr said:
mcate,
Where did you get that cold air divider box?
I've looked for those and can't find one.
Thanks,
Tom

Got it with the Magnum Powers intake setup from Bull at SCP. He probably sells separately if the box is all you need.

Mike
 
mcate said:
Got it with the Magnum Powers intake setup from Bull at SCP. He probably sells separately if the box is all you need.

Mike

Oops, I meant BILL at SCP!
 
I wish I could afford chrome, that would look kick ***! But that is more than I can afford if I want to do any more performance mods this year. Seems most are split in the poll. Figgures, I'm still not sure what to do. :confused: Meh, may end up doing what mcate did or paint it. I don't see how I can polish between the letters, short of spending an insane amount of time on it!
 
That's at least part of the reason why I didn't polish mine between the letters. It would've taken forever. Plus I really like the look of it the way I did it. And the pics don't really do it justice. I'm having my blower polished this winter. Not planning on doing that myself, just too many little places I can't get at. I'm going to have the magnaporting done by Magnum Powers, and I'll just have them polish it while they've got it.
 
I'll take your word for it looking that good. I'll probably end up doing it like that too. I did sand it a bit, only to 80 grit so that should give enough of a contrast.
If ya don't mind my askin, how much is the blower polishing going to cost? I've had mine ported already, you'll love the improvement in power and whine! :cool: I'd love to get the blower polished as well.
 
Grims95SC said:
I'll take your word for it looking that good. I'll probably end up doing it like that too. I did sand it a bit, only to 80 grit so that should give enough of a contrast.
If ya don't mind my askin, how much is the blower polishing going to cost? I've had mine ported already, you'll love the improvement in power and whine! :cool: I'd love to get the blower polished as well.

Charles at MP said he'll polish it for $350. I've found a couple places locally that'll do it for $250, but I don't necessarily trust them with a blower. There's a place here in Norfolk that will chrome plate both IC tubes, the blower top, & the intake manifold adapter for approx $650. That included all the sanding & prep work. I'm hoping that, with all the polishing I've done, I might get the plating done for a little less.
 
Also, for all us 94-95 owners, Magnum Powers might eventually offer a Cold Air Divider for us. In case you haven't checked, the radiator overflow reservoir is on the driver's side on our SC's, not on the passenger side as on the 89-93's. The original kit has a bracket that goes around the intake tube just after the MAF, & it uses the reservoir as a seal. I wrote Charles about making a CAD for us, & he said no one around him has a 94-95 SC to use to design one. I offered to modify one for him, so he sent me one to play with. I've got what I think is a pretty good design ready to send back to him to use as a pattern. I had to do quite a bit of cutting, & I completely did away with the kits' MAF bracket & made my own back plate. Here's a couple of pics of what I came up with. If enough of us express interest in it, he'll most likely put it into production.
By the way, while I had it bolted in place, I took the car out for a "spin". Romped on it a couple of times, & you can REALLY hear the blower!
 

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Here you go.

I did what I think you want to do, so I hope this will work as a better visual. I did the painting for it looked awesome once it was complete and it also was a lot less to polish and sand etc.

10.jpg


Good luck, it looks great so far, but there is still a long road ahead.

-Tim
 
Re: ...

Tim Groth said:
I did what I think you want to do, so I hope this will work as a better visual. I did the painting for it looked awesome once it was complete and it also was a lot less to polish and sand etc.

Good luck, it looks great so far, but there is still a long road ahead.

-Tim

Nice job!!

Just wondering where did you get that double intercooler from? that's the cleanest one so far. :)
 
I think what I'll do is do it like mcate and if I do'nt really like it I'll paint it similar to Tim's. At least with the paint, I can always remove it easily. Damn this really is time consuming... :(
 
Grims95SC said:
I think what I'll do is do it like mcate and if I do'nt really like it I'll paint it similar to Tim's. At least with the paint, I can always remove it easily. Damn this really is time consuming... :(


I did mine last winter. Came home from work every day & just spent an hour or 2 on it. I bought a set of IC tubes & all from someone so I wouldn't have to remove the ones on the car & the car be down. You're definitely right about the time-consuming part. Getting the pits out with the 60 grit is the slowest. After that I found it went a lot faster.
 
Pics of my work

WHOOHOOOO!!! :D :D :D I finished my intercooler today. I polished the top and sides up to 1000 grit and painted the bottom, front and back gloss black. BIG IMPROVEMENT! But damn was the top ever pitted badly. Forget sandpaper, get a grinder! :(
533918_79_full.jpg

533918_80_full.jpg


And here's the result of my labour. It doesn't look as good as it will since the pic of it placed on the engine was taken in my garage which has bad lighting and I haven't used much aluminum polish on it. But still I think it's a big improvment!
 
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I think I have about 3 hours into the top and about 3-1/2 into this valve cover.

A lot of time but think about the gains in horsepower!! :D

Sean
 

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