Polished my MAF ends today and took a few pics. Not the best for sure but certainly better than before. Took me about 3-4 hours. The aluminum castings have a lot of deep pits in them that are very hard to get rid of. They add character, I guess.

 

Looks good, but I wouldnt have polished anywhere that didnt show ... it would have saved you a LOT of time , hehe ---

 

Thanks... but on this piece, I couldn't help it. Mostly just wanted to get the crap off of the hose connections. I may do it again and try to get it better if I get the time.

 

Looks very good, I have been wanting to get into polishing a little bit myself. How do you guys go about doing it and what tools/materials are needed?

 

Thanks. My project V65 Magna and an old friend of mine got me started on polishing a few years ago... I could shoot them both! lol

I already have air so, I started out with an little handheld 1/4" air grinder and some 4" buffing wheels and the bug grew from there. I now have a media blast cabinet for stripping clear coat, etc. and just bought a 6" bench polisher + stand from Harbor Freight for $60 about a month or two ago. Sears has decent 6" buffing wheels for about $6/each that I like to use. Northern Tool sells stuff as well.

If there are alot of casting marks, like the stock MAF ends, you'll need sanding wheels and scotch-brite discs to get those out. The die grinder comes in handy for this. The discs are cheap but... like everything else, all of this stuff adds up. The biggest expense, IMO, is your time... and it's very messy. I'm still learning but I'm inspired by a few of the masters out there who do beautiful work. Check out some *** motorcycle parts on e-Bay and you'll see what I mean. Or even that guy in here who just posted pics his entire Corsa exhaust a few days ago. Those pipes are stainless steel so it wasn't a complete waste... they will look good for a very long time.

For more info, go to www.caswellplating.com. They have a decent write up on how to polish, what rouge to use, along with all of the wheels, compounds, etc.

 

I want to know too, i really need to start concentrating on my engine bay it's starting to look like crap

 

Great info, thanks.

 

Looks good, but I think I just realized that when I changed CAI's, that my MAF didn't have a screen! I'll have to check into that when I get my car back from the shop.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much, thats one of the first free mods you can perform.....Mine has been gone for about 4 years now.

 

I had my screen out for about 4 years also but decided to put it back in when I did the polish. It's all about seat of the pants for me and having the screen in won't make a difference.

 

that's a purdy maf u got there budday