Eastwood makes a really nice clear for covering polished metal, and supposedly some urethane clears work really well also.

Thanks for the detailed description and I figured that it was pretty much that deal but I wasn’t sure what tools you actually ran the abrasive on. Sounds like mostly cartridge roll on a die grinder and roloc disk in an angle die grinder. Did you try the surfice conditioning (scotch brite like stuff) roloc disks?

I might just be assuming that you didn’t do something that you didn’t write about but I bet that you could have saved yourself a lot of the finder sanding steps by experimenting with some of the harsher cutting compounds (like emery) and a buff…

Still looks incredible.

I hope that as others have said, you had the block ‘fluxed for cracks before you started, and me being more of a form follows function type guy I would have polished the whole inside before even considering the outside…

Of course, I hate the look of normal tranny cases and I’m just this side of smoothing all the casting roughness on the outside of the 4L80e that I’m working on now, but I’d probably stop well before it’s as nice as that, just when all the casting/surface crap is gone and spray bomb it something nice (hit it with some cheap industrial equipment paint)…

 

When I started this project 2 years ago, Permastar finish was still brand new and at that time Edelbrock had exclusive rights to it. The original plan was not to have the block powder coated, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to this extreme. The issue with spray bomb clearcoat on polished surfaces is adhesion: if it doesn't get eaten or abraded off by dirt/debris that gets driven over on roads then the simple heat of the engine and outgassing will eventually cause it to lift and peel. The original plan was to use this product after a mirror finish was achieved:
http://www.alsacorp.com/products/cle...h_prodinfo.htm

In the timeframe that it took to get the block where it is now, Goodrich, (the company that developed Permastar), started granting distribution rights to outside vendors with the intent of using it on custom applications. Even though the Clear4Chrome is a superior "high tech" clearcoat that would undoubtedly work very well on this application, when weighing it's resistance to normal wear-and-tear against that of a product that is already pretty tough on it's own and allows for base coating with other paints such as POR-15, the choice became a no-brainer. (Adding to the fact that Permastar is the ONLY finish of it's kind that I know of that comes with a 3-year warranty.)

I understand how it would seem that I'm just a fool on a mission from God who did way more work than was necessary to ultimately end up at the same conclusion, but that wasn't the intent or the plan from the onset.

 

Thats AMAZING!!!!

I just posted on thirdgen.org asking if this was possible orr if its ever been done before and I got a link to this. After seeing this my next motor won't have anything less (maybe an alumnium block or something...LS7?)