Thread: 3 hours of work! Check out my sanded tips!

I had a little free time last night and I wanted to work on the car. With no upgrade parts and little stuff to do (The car was already washed and vacumed), decided to try to shine up those terribly corroded and discolored tips. I only had 2 grades of sand paper. One I believe is 100 and the other was very very gritty. I actualy got the strong stuff from my pops. He says its a plumbers sand paper. He had a name for it but I forgot it.

Any way I gave wet sanding a shot. I had a cup of hot water and a rag. I kept where ever I was sanding wet. It took me a little over 2 hours to get the tips mostly shinned up.

This is from last night:















Now that I have sun light I would like to improve them a little more. I went to the auto store and picked up a 10 oz jar of Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish (good stuff). This whole process took about 20-30 minutes of my morning.

These tips aren't perfect, or rediculously shiny BUT damn they looked SO much better than how they looked before. Sorry I didnt take a before picture but im sure you guys now how bad they looked. Terrible. Gray/black.
















What do you think?

Looks good, good start for sure.

I smell a skunk.




~F~

Originally Posted by silverbullet

looks good, but i think if you use a dremel tool it would be more easier and bring out more shiner

I used a dremel on mine last night. Not ever using one, I did not know what tool, so I used the only one that would work well with metal. Then I went and bought a brass brush attachment and used that. Is there an attachment to smooth it out more and make it more shiny? I will buy another brush attachment. I know I need more work, but would like it more shiny and not knowing what tools do what, I ask. Tell me what you think as a start.

Yea definitely if I used a dremel, i would get better results, but I just want to clean em up. I'm satisfied with this. They looked so bad before!!

GR8- You smell it too!? Hes been hangin around my house for weeks! >:|

Looks good, that was one of the first things I did to my car when I first bought it. Alot better than that ugly ass cast, huh?

Next thing to do is buy a can of high temp header paint and paint those stock mufflers so people behind you don't see rusty mufflers. Those mufflers are more visable from behind than most people think.

Good idea. Ill pick up some paint and hit the back of the mufflers.

A little sanding and primer b4 should do the trick.

Also im getting a dremmel from work today. Going to hopefully get em lookin even better

looks good, youre on the right track!

Originally Posted by kyle99gtp

looks good, youre on the right track!

Your the guy I got the idea from

Very nice! You have a few options

Get some very fine grit sand paper and smooth them out.

And or

Get mothers mag and aluminum polish. Its the best sheet on earth.

Polish them to hell!

Well I was going to clean them some more, but it is raining. I can't run the car till I get the mounts and brackets back on. They are in the paint shop.

I bought a wire brush that fits on my power drill. I have some Eagle One Mag and Aluminum polish, if that is OK. I looked at the Mothers, and rubbed both in my fingers, and they felt the same. ok ok ok. So I rubbed one out.

waiting for it to stop raining.

They look great man, nice work.

Finished up. Just a few questions, It is nice, but I would like to get a more mirror finish. Is that possible? I did the aluminimun polish and that helped, but is there anything I could put on that can keep it looking this good for awhile?

Originally Posted by Egleone6

Finished up. Just a few questions, It is nice, but I would like to get a more mirror finish. Is that possible? I did the aluminimun polish and that helped, but is there anything I could put on that can keep it looking this good for awhile?

Just get a variety of finer grit sand papers, start with the lowest grit and work your way up, then go back and hit it with some aluminum polish. Not quite sure what grit you want to end on but I would think that 1500 or 2000 would give it the best mirror shine.

I have only 1500 and 2000. I have some other pads, I may just use those and then work with the other two.

use some 400 to get the casting roughness out, then got to 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000, then mothers mag and aluminum polish on a powerball and youre good to go.