496 ho polished exhaust elbows?
 

I was wanting to polish the exhaust elbows on my 496 ho's to add a little cheap bling to my engine compartment. What would be the best way to go about it? Does anyone have any pics of them polished?

I'm about to do the same procedure on my 496 ho. Strip the black paint with a good quality paint stripper. You will need a professional stand up buffing machine to buff--farm them out for buffing. I've seen pics and they look very nice buffed. Good luck....

I have had sucess polishing Cast Aluminum and Stainless Steel with hand held air tools and bench grinders using a lot of wet sanding, emery wheels, cotton buffs and the right compounds. www.caswellplating.com has all the necessary polishing wheels and compounds. They also have a pretty good forum that is very helpful in learning how to polish aluminum and stainless steel. It is a dirty job, but can be done in the garage on a bench grinder or high speed drill. I have learned the more wetsanding you do, the less polishing you will need. Make sure to wear a dust mask as metal dust if inhaled can lead to many health hazards.

If you decide to tackle yourself, please post completed pics!

Does anybody have a pick of the raw casting.some of the cast stuff is a night mare to polish.

its alot of time!!

Thanks for the input guys! One dumb question, the elbows are stainless correct?? I will post pics during the process of it.

The lowers look incredible Rob! Ready to start on the Myco?:lolhit:

Thanks,there already tarnishing from just sitting there.I put new fenders on the trailer and polished them some,its going to show water spots bad,I getting a new cover for the boat made and I'm getting them to make some tool box covers,Ive got them mirror polished.The trailer I have been scotchblock pad every time I wash it so its getting smoother every time.I dought it will polish up verygood, I did have a alum I beam under my 28 Scarab, It was polished!!

Rob:drink:

I've just stripped my 496 elbows with Aircraft Stripper and they are indeed Stainless Steel...

is it smooth or cast looking,stainless will be fun, but ya prob wnat have to repolish it again.

I already polished one set and will be doing 3 more sets. Keeping 2 sets for my boat and selling the other 2 pair. I bead blasted them before polishing. Be patient and take the time to do it right. Be your own worst critic! What I was thinking of was to add braided high temp exhaust hose from the transom from the elbows. Need to find a distributor that might carry the 4 inch stuff???