Whats the best way to get an Edelbrock aluminum intake smooth to polish it?

[Rallye455]

Whats the best way to get an Edelbrock aluminum intake smooth enough to polish it?

[The Stickman]

I am doing this now. I started with a wire wheel. Next I am going to take an elcetric sander to it. I want it all smooth and polished before sending it off to habe the fuel injector bungs welded on and drilled out.

[Rallye455]

I started today with a 3M exl wheel but that cant get into the nooks and crannies..just the large flat areas..looks like its going to take a lot longer than I hoped.

[The Stickman]

I bought a sander with different attachments to get into all the tight places. I'll let you know how it works when I finally use it.

[Roadbuster]

I used a dremel tool to get rid of the rough stuff and hand sanded my cast aluminum power steering pump mount:

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2008/06/CIMG1699-1.jpg

You can see the as cast in the middle. That goes against the head and has the casting and part numbers on it so I left it alone. The whole part looked like that when I started.

I wanted a brushed finish, but to polish I would of just kept going with finer sandpaper and then polishing compounds.

Started hand sanding with 100, then 220 and finished with 360. Gave me the brushed look I wanted but took a long time for a small part.

Look for someone who sells the porting and polishing roll sets they use on heads. They have different grits while the dremel sanding drum could not get into the tight spots.

This would work for an intake manifold as well but it takes a loooong time!

Jon

[MonzaRacer]

3m rolocs on angle grinder ans then crossbuffs til smooth.

[The Stickman]

Here is my Edelbrock Performer that I have been working on. I put maybe an hour and a half total in it. About an hour today with a Skil palm sander. Notice I took off the "Performer" Edelbrock" and "7111" as well as mostly doing the tops of the intake runners. I have done other other spots but all the little tight spots are what I need to get next. Now the sand paper pads I got with the palm sander are just 60 and 120 grit so I am going to have to use something of a finer grit to finish it off but it is coming along nicely.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/100_1095-1.jpg

[Rallye455]

Looking good. I'll try and post some pics of my progress.

[The Stickman]

From this
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/100_1095-1.jpg
to this
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/100_5497-1.jpg
All just about an hours more worth of work.

[Rallye455]

Here is a few of mine so far.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://img39.imageshack.us/i/442torker455010.jpg/)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://img39.imageshack.us/i/442torker455005.jpg/)
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif (http://img714.imageshack.us/i/442torker455009.jpg/)

[obengston]

Alot of work (frustrating) but looks so good when finished

[OLDFLM]

Just takes time... I removed the water crossover and heat crossover from this Pontiac Edelbrock Performer as well...

[wmhjr]

Best way?

Buy it polished :) Getting a non-polished one ready to polish is a PITA

[bbcc]

You guys are polishing the wrong side.....


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/02/portedintakemanifold-1.jpg