Engine bay 'not so' shiny bits

[Falkster]

Has anyone got any experience (pics if you've got them) of minting their engine bay please?

All hoses and plastics are either mint or new but any bit of bare metal such as dizzy housing, AFM, alternator, coil but mainly the throttle bodies.
I've (well mainly Drew) have gone through 2 tubes of autosol and have only scratched the surface of getting them something like.
Is there anything else I could do that will get me the desired results?[/img]

[ImysE30]

Something like this







Loads of bay's in this thread:

http://www.e30zone.net/modules.php?name ... engine+bay

[Falkster]

Cheers mate, I did search and found that thread but other than Alex, nobody really gave away what they used on what and how they got the results.
Although I appreciate the pics you've attched mate I want my standard (looking) engine bay to look as clean and new as poss.

[m_jermyn]

Falkster,

You need to remove the parts you want to polish mate.... There is a few ways to do it... You use some wet and dry and sand it down the grades until you get to 2000 and then you need a buffing wheel on a drill or a bench grinder, there is also a variety of buffing pads ...Then use a aluminum polish to polish it up... You can also send the parts away for polishing...

The problem with alloy it dulls very fast and needs lots of maintaining... If you use degreaser on alloy it will dull instantly aswell.. Once polished you can have them cleared over with 2k paint but adhesive promotor must be used otherwise the paint will flake this will protect you shiny alloy from the elements..

Hope this points you in the right direction

[Falkster]

Thanks mate, that's cracking. I suppose I knew the answer (take the parts off) but I was hoping there was some miracle way of doing it.
This leaves the throttle bodies as an issue then as I don't really want to take then off to polish but everything else I can do.....I can do it whilst the wife watches Corrie!!