V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

Come on then, lets see them painted or polished. The crinkle finish is flaking off on my sti and i want some ideas of what to do. Re-paint in crinkle red or do i go for something different? Lets see what you've done / found out there on 'tinterweb

I know this is a non standard manifold but quick like the finish:

Darc174

iTrader: (13)

im looking to go the Polished Route need to see some Examples first i think

darc

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

yup i need to see some first too before commiting to it. would have to get a spare one to polish up so that i don't have to have the car off the road. guessing it'll take a lot longer than a crinkle paint finish.

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

I made a start a little while back but never got any further,





Far from easy and very time consuming.... I should get my head back into it really.

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

nice start though. bet it gives you cramp in the hands & fingers if doing it for too long.

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

Very challenging you realise just how bad quality the finish is, the trouble is after you grind the krud off you then need to smooth in order to polish. I need to take it to work on a friday and after I finish and make a start on it, we have a polishing machine there and the mops as well.

TBH even though it's nice to do this yourself if you don't have the kit I think it's worth paying for this to be done, send it to a proper polishing company. The mops make the job easy and they can be expensive to buy along with the correct compounds, it's a 2 stage polishing job at the least with different grades of mops/compounds needed.

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

how much you charging then SSS?

beef-on-the-bone

iTrader: (5)

and then the constant cleaning when it's in the engine bay..................









............does look good when done right though

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

I'm not taking orders no way I know what's involved all to well

I don't think after polishing the up keep would be to bad really, with a good finish it should be easy enough to maintain.

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

Actually thinking on it if you could get one polished to a high quality for £100 or under it would be a good deal.... that's my personal opinion on it.

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

£100 wouldn't be too bad for a proper job i guess.

wrx9181

iTrader: (2)

rcm do an exchange yours for a lovely polished one and 200 plus quid of your hard earned

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

i think for that price i'd probably get it painted or have a go myself first. £200 is a bit steep imo.

subaru-impreza-2000

got to admit they do look nice fitted.

But keeping them clean would be a hassle me thinks.

dave_garrett

iTrader: (24)

Crinkle Black on mine (cars now a limited edition 'black-top', ):

phil739

iTrader: (30)

went for standard red on mine



my old one is spare now if any wants to make an offer its standard v5-v6 one ..lol
as i didnt want my car of the road to long

wrighty338

iTrader: (33)

search for polished inlets on ebay there is a guy who does them for £150 all in returned within a coupla days hes a plating solutions bloke called dave

mbd sti2

iTrader: (2)

I got a second hand manifold from flebay for £10 did it gloss red as my sti one is looking sad now just got to swap it this week will post pics after fitted to

wrx287

iTrader: (8)

I had a price to have mine powder coated and it was only £57 That included the cleaning aswell. Just got to get it off now

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

quite like the black crinkle. I'm going for a black / red combo on my sti so that could work quite nicely. The crinkle and gloss reds have been done nicely as well

Cheers Wrighty, I'll look that guy up.

Surprised nobody has commented on the mental setup in the pic in my first post. Yup that's an Impreza engine bay!

The Stitcher

iTrader: (12)

done mine blue / silver with speckles of black just to be a little different

RED2

thats not bad fancy doing mine but how much work is it to take it all off

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

rather like that. reminds me of the alfa romeo colour that was out a few years back.

wrx287

iTrader: (8)

Bit of a pain in the ar$e i think. All the inlectors and stuff have to come off aswell

turboDean

iTrader: (4)

Good finish on the bit you've polished Si
You've got futher than me, i'm still on the smoothing stage, must of spent 10+ hours so far on it, lost interest at the moment though
If the car don't sell will have to get round to finishing it and get it on.

trails

iTrader: (41)

RA Dunk

nice, did you do this with a portable polisher (elec plug in type) or one of those bigger ones which are normally bolted to the floor?

nerocircus

iTrader: (1)

I really wanted something different too...



Looked much better in the flesh, the photo doesn't capture it very well. To be fair though, wish I'd picked something else as it's not exactly the easiest of things to keep clean...nicotene yellow appears the be the colour it's resolving to now!

Silver Scooby Sport

iTrader: (15)

First off I used grinder for the really bad areas where the joints were then I used a flapped sanding wheel in the drill to try and smooth that over more, Ideally I could do with a phosphor bronze wire brush which will smooth the ally out nicely next. Don't worry I'm not an anorak I work for a brush manufacturer Then after all that's done you need to work with the graded cloth polishing mops and compounds the get the shine.... but yes your right the small areas that have been polished were on a floor mounted machine, it was just a couple of trial areas to see what work was involved. It has shown me that I still need to do a lot more prep work still before the final polish.

To polish one of these it is a serious amount of work trust me... like Dean I've lost some interest but during the winter when the car shows finish I need to get back on it for next year.

RA Dunk

Wouldent the bronze wire brush scratch/score the metal though? Quite fancy having a go of this but dont have access to one of those floor bolted polishing machines