On wheels I've heard of people using a drill supported polishing sponge (mothers wheel cleaner, Meguiars makes one) just find the one you think will work best. Use a corded drill as well. It will stand up to the long polishing times and is usually stronger than cordless counterparts.

 

So after all my frustration last night i decided to take me VC into work and get some opinions from a friend who has quite a bit of experience sanding and polishing. After work we headed to his garage and he began to sand a small area just to show me the process he likes to use. I had already sanded quite a bit so he started at 400 and really spent a lot of time getting every little spec uniform to 400 grit. after that he wet sanded it with 400 to take out a few more scratches. He then got some rubbing compound (fine cut) rubbed it on the surface coating it somewhat evenly and let it set for a minute until it got a little dry and hazy. He then hit it with a rotary buffer and i was instantly amazed with the finish even at a wet 400 grit... made my polish attempt look plain stupid lol. He buffed it a few times then coated the surface with mothers polish rubbed it around to an even coat let set 10 minutes and buffed it off. The finish was suprisingly nice but he suggested i go up to 1000 or 1500 or so to get a somewhat mirror finish. He also showed me quite a few sanding/grinding techniques and gave me the balls to remove the casting marks along the base of the VC. So I got home and started with 180 grit to get all the porous casting markes out and began to remove the big casting bumps...










Overall i am happy with the progress even though there was a lot of wasted time with trial and error. In the end i will be glad i did it myself

Tomorrow my goal is to look the part over once more and finish up the initial 180 grit then complete the 320 and maybe 400 if i have time.

 

How is this coming along?

 

Very nice project I did this once with a intake manifold. I work on fighter jets in the military and we have a kit that we call a mesh kit. It is made to repair the scratches and hazing or crazing on a aircraft canopy. It has fine sanding materials all the was up to like 10000 or something. It made a mirror finish using just the kit wet sanding and some metal polish. Don't have access to the kits anymore but I need to see if they can be bought online.

 

The great weather made me give up and paint it

 

Shes painted black... I guess the only good thing that came out of all that sanding and work was the fact that i removed the casting marks :/

 

wow came out amazing!

 

im digging the engine bay a lot...i might have to jack your style...whats the duct on the driver side going to? just curious

 

Thanks a lot guys ive spent quite a bit of time under that there hood

The drivers side headlight duct just dumps air on the intake manifold stole the idea from the evasive s2000

 

Looks awesome! Do you mind sharing what you used to cover all those vaccum lines? It looks so clean