The block will be Permastar chromed to prevent it from rusting.

 

ha ha thats sweet.
Id leave it natural tho

john

 

nice! but but how are you going to paint something that smooth? and if you didn't paint it wouldn't it rust?

 

Nice, better not blow that engine up

 

They have paints on the market now that are designed specifically for painting ultra smooth surfaces like polished metal. I was playing around with this new paint called METALCAST from Duplicolor about 2 weeks ago, and I sprayed it on a stock steel tensioner pulley off an LT1 accessory bracket that I polished to a mirror. Came out like this:



As you can see it still casts a reflection, but it's just colored. Looks like an ultra bright anodizing job. This paint has a helper paint called adhesion promoter that you spray on the part before you spray the color, so that it'll stick. I was thinking that block might look pretty sexy with either a coat of this red, or maybe some gold. (I wonder how many people I could fool into believing I had the block gold plated?) What do you think?

 

I admire your perserverance! Looks awesome!

 

wow thats gonna look awesooome

 

Looks very nice, good luck with it.

 

wow you got too much time on your hands

i'm too lazy to even polish my shift handle

you get mucho respect from me

 

I dont even want to know how much that costed you in compounds and tools. I need to learn how to polish some stuff. I have an angle grinder, dremel, and drill... Do they make good attachments for any of these to get that nice shine you have?

 

That will look awesome, especially with a blue anodized look.

 

Iron hates to be polished. Because of this, I had to exhaust 23 different grits of sandpaper before I got to the buffing stage. If what you're wanting to polish is aluminum, it's much cheaper in terms of materials investment.

There are two companies I deal with to get my polishing supplies from:

Eastwood Co.
Gesswein

The tapered sanding cones that Eastwood sells are priceless. They make it much easier, (and quicker), to sand tiny crevices and difficult-to-fit-your-fingers-in angles. Eastwood sells the tapered cones from 80 grit all the way to 320 grit. To finish out aluminum the best I always sand to at least a 600 grit finish before moving on to the buffing stage. For this, I use sanding drums in 400grit and 600grit sold by Gesswein. (Gesswein's a little more expensive, but the quality of their products is top notch.)

Depending on the nature of the part(s) you're wanting to polish, you may be able to get away with using tapered felt bobs and/or 4" buffing wheels on an angle grinder. That would be more for smaller parts that have alot of intricate angles and varied surface patterns. For stuff that's larger, I highly recommend buying at least a 3/4hp bench grinder that can make use of 10"-12" buffing wheels. It sounds like you're just starting out, so to cut down on the frustration level I suggest choosing something small with alot of round edges just so you can get the hang of it. (A part that comes to mind that's a pretty popular item to polish is an A/C dryer canister.)

Polishing metal is a black art that eats up alot of patience. The first thing I can tell you about doing this is that there's no set way or even "best" way of doing it: if you stick with it you will eventually find your own way. If you don't get the results you were expecting the first time around, DON'T GIVE UP! Practice, practice, practice. Be experimental in your approach. You're never going to "hurt" the metal if you try a different method. The worst that can happen is you might end up making more work for yourself but as time goes on you'll achieve a better understanding of how different methods work for different things so as long as you're persistent it will work itself out eventually. Hope that gives you enough of an idea of where to start. Good luck!

 

Much props from here man. I think it would look incredable in blue,but thats just me,I have a thing for blue

 

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys. This engine block was mainly something I needed for my portfolio. About 50% of the customers I get ask me, "Why are you worth the money?", so I thought being able to show people a mirror smooth iron engine block, (how often do you ever see one of THOSE?), might help out with the credibility factor just a little bit. Keeping fingers crossed...

 

Damn, that's incredible. VERY NICE!

How much time do you have in that sucker? About how long does it take you to do something like that pulley? Just curious the time involved to do something like that