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???

I made some stainless 4" tubes that angle thru the transom and bubble at low speed and roar when on plane

Anyone have any pics of the 496 elbows already polished?

I just orderd the buff kit from caswell plating I will post pics of the entire process once im done.

Here is a pic of the first of four 496 elbows.

Scarab 31, I just decided to do it myself. Yours look great, what is your method for it? I just bought the stainless buff kit from caswellplating.com and planned on using paint stripper. How long does it take to buff one elbow out?

Soonenough, no problem. I had them sand blasted first using silica sand. Then you start sanding and sanding by hand. I started with 180 grit and worked up to 1200 or 1500 wet paper in small steps, (180, 200, 400, 600, 1000, 1200, 1500). Then you need to polish them with a buffing wheel on a bench grinder using a rosin for stainless steel. I am not yet finished with the one I posted a picture of. The post is after about 2.5 hrs of sanding. What you will find is that there are some real difficult areas to get to along the sides etc., that have indentations from the forming process. Since they are powder coated, imperfections in the steel didn't matter. Good luck and post some pics, especially in the boat!

Here is a picture of them polished in a Sunsation MCOB

Mahopac those look great! The cover looks so good it draws the attention away from them!

Scarab31, Would paint stripper even take the powder coating off or do i have to sand/soda blast them?

Don't know for sure. A buddy of mine said he would sand blast them for free and I let him. I guess it all depends if the paint stripper will remove powder coat or not???

Scarab, those look great. Good job! Looks like I have another project to do now. :drink: :drink:

Thanks! Yep, its always nice to add some bling.

Working on the third of four exhaust risers and should have them posted for sale on this site soon. Not sure what to ask yet. I am willing to take an exchange of lesser cash and non-polished set.