Guest Zpeed Posted August 17, 2001 Share Posted August 17, 2001 Right now i'm rebuilding my L26 for my daily driver, i've already got some nice colour coding with blue wires and filters with the blue car, and i'll be repainting the block to the original blue how do you polish the valve colour, i believe that it can be cromed or is it just hard sanding for many long hours, i'm not sure at all, i think it would make the engine bay look alot nicer and cleaner, any suggestions, i suspect it would be the same method for the carbs.. the dome covers is all that i'll do for them unless i just sand it, prime it and paint it red, like most of those other nissan engines, that would look sweet... and sorry if i was suppose to post this in another area, i just wasn't really sure, thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted August 17, 2001 Share Posted August 17, 2001 I've not looked closely at a Nisan valve cover bu tif it's not got a lot of detail areas it can be done somewhat easily. If it's got grooves and whatnot it could be more difficult. Having said that... Get yourself some good wetdry sandpaper in a variety of grits. 400, 800, maybe 1200. Consider getting so flapper wheels for the drill too. Goto town until it's nice and smooth. Use water to lubricate it when handsanding and use the flapper with the drill clamped into a vise for bigger areas and deep scratches. Do NOT use a rough flapper wheel! Aluminum is soft... when it's looking pretty good with just sanding scratches get a bugging wheel that can be bolted into the drill and again clamp it in a vice. Goto town all over again. Use some fine compound at first and see how it goes. If this doesn't bring it righ tup switch to a rougher compound but realize that yo'll have to clean ALL of it off and use a seperate wheel when you switch to the fine stuff. Having used fine sandpaper before this point will pay off. when that's finally done use Wenol or Mothers aluminum polish on it. Finally, find a good heat resistant clearcoat or have it clear powdercoated 'cause it WILL oxidizerust and show spots etc. It will be a constant source of maintenance if you don't coat it - trust me! Yes, I've used the above methods before and did an entire Mustang upper intake using them. I now have a full sized Baldor buffer complete with a nice high speed flapper wheel and things go MUCH faster! Oh, wear a dust mask, a GOOD ONE, not those crap paper things whenyou use the drill. If you don't do this you'll have black boogies afterwards and it's going into your lungs too. Wear goggles when using the flapper and buffer too. Dust will go everywhere, I have a PILE on my workbench and it's all over my rafters too! I'd suggest you consider starting on something small liek th bells first as you'll quickly figure out this can be a ton of work to do right depending on the subject matter. I doubt I'll ever do another Mustang manifold having done two in the past. You should be aware that some aluminum contains junk in them *Mustang manifolds!* that will come out when you polish. This forces you to sand further to get past it and can be a losing battle. I found air pockets and other junk in the Mustang manifolds. You might want to check MSA's price on their already done valve covers before you begin too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 17, 2001 Share Posted August 17, 2001 Just one point of clarification to an otherwise excellent post: If you work with aluminum dust a lot, your boogers will turn green, not black. Black is the result from carbide dust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted August 17, 2001 Share Posted August 17, 2001 Hey I resemble that remark! Tastelessly, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted August 17, 2001 Share Posted August 17, 2001 Nah, the black comes from the polishing compound and dust. Even if it starts out as a white compound as soon as the meal hits the wheel it goes black pretty quickly. trust me, my garage is covered in the stuff and I've got strings from the buffs hanging all over the place. Assembling an engine in my "cleanroom" would be a joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted August 18, 2001 Share Posted August 18, 2001 While we're on the subject of the color of boogers, Richard, wouldn't copper make them (keep them) green? Or would they actually end up blue??? Perhaps you could make a spread sheet showing the various metals and the resulting colors of boogers! We'll add it to the FAQ sheet! Perhaps you can even submit it for college credits lol Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted August 18, 2001 Share Posted August 18, 2001 Davy, I can tell you've been reading alot of Lonehdrider's posts - your sense of humor is showing it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted August 18, 2001 Share Posted August 18, 2001 Sorry, Pete, but he asked for it I'm feeling kinda juvenile right now... Davy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zpeed Posted August 18, 2001 Share Posted August 18, 2001 thanks guys.... i'll get to it... i'll post some pics when i'm done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted August 19, 2001 Share Posted August 19, 2001 Uh, I don't think we need to see pictures of your boogers, no matter what colour they are. Oh, hey, did you mean the polishing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted August 19, 2001 Share Posted August 19, 2001 BTW, Motorsports recent flyer has a chrome valve cover for $120. I didn't note if there was a core charge though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zpeed Posted August 19, 2001 Share Posted August 19, 2001 I've decided to go for the red cover with polished carbs... i think that will look really good... and will get the good NISSAN look with the red cover, like how the rb's and ca motors are!!// Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted August 20, 2001 Share Posted August 20, 2001 Trust me, that's a better way to go. The more stuff is polished and chromed the more time you spend with Qtips and polishing compound. Not to mention the PITA of polishing to begin with. My car has minimal polish and if I could've found this alternator in cast aluminum I'd have done it I think brushed looks great (shrug) Red calvecover and polished carbs will look wonderful. See if you can find th etextured paint, I've forgotten what it's called. You usually see it in black but there must be a way to get it in red.If you want to polish just the raised letters on the valvecover do this: Use very fine wetdry sandpaper to sand the raised letters smooth. Don;t worry if it gets on the surrounding area but try not to scuff that too much. Once it's pretty smooth switch to soapy water and even finer grit if you can find it and then to Mother's or Wenol metal polish. Once real shiney prep the rest of the valve cover for paint but be careful not to dull the raised letters. Just before painting smear vasoline carefully and thinly over the raised letters. Spray the paint and allow to dry. Carefull wipe away th epaint stuck on the surface of the vasoline and clean the goo off. TaDa, paint didn't stick to anything but the surrounding metal. I've done htis a couple of times and it's always worked well so long as the jelly didn't get on anything but what I was protecting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted August 20, 2001 Share Posted August 20, 2001 You could have them wrinkle red powder coated and I believe they can do the raised letters by masking and then clear coating. It looks good and holds up real well. I think it would look great. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Zpeed Posted August 20, 2001 Share Posted August 20, 2001 damnn, never thought of having the nissan polished, very very smart idea, and espcially with the goo, haha, I just have to do it slowly and not get to excited like i usually do and stuff it up.... thanks alot for that one... i've got a touch of the flu right now, in the next couple of days i'll get to it... thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santanawhite Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 I'm planning on having a lot if polish under the hood. Does anybody have any pictures? My plan is to have the intakes, the tops, valve cover, alternator, some paint here and there. Just a nice clean engine bay with tucked wires. Post those pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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