ss85tadude

Ok, I have have now polished my plenum and runners, and the lip around my GTA wheels (pics coming soon) And now how do I maintain them. Right now all I have on them is the Mothers alum polish. And I am definently not going to clear coat anything.

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

blue magic will work slightly better and mothers billet polish will work even better then that. i don't like mothers regular aluminum polish at all.

as far as keeping it up beyond keeping it clean i've been told you can use 100% carnuba wax as a protective coating once you get it looking the way you want. i have yet to try it since my car is constantly in and out of the shop.

grngryoutmyway

iTrader: (1)

I've tried carnuba wax and it didnt even seem like it adheared to the polished surface, it dried but them just look like I was rubbing it around the wheel when I tried to take it off. I guess the only thing to do is keep polishing it regularly, Ive never used the blue magic stuff but mother billet works very well... its just a bit pricey

ss85tadude

So am I going to have to take my plenum off to repolish it?Do i have to go all the way back to Tripoli Compound?

9D1BURD

If you are already have the polish look you want, the only thing you need to do is use some blue magic or mothers billet to "reshine" it from time to time.

My polished wheels need to be hit about once a week to stay looking nice, granted this is on my daily driver.

For the underhood stuff, i am not sure how long the luster will last. But by no means do you need to go back to that step.

bnoon

For the wheels, you can use the wax as Kandied mantioned. For the intake parts though, the wax just melts off and forms white residue in the edges and metal pores.

I use metal polish (what ever is on sale) for any hard build up, remove residue, and then spray/rub it with WD-40 to keep the aluminum from oxidizing as quickly. I've used this method with great success for over 20 years on all of my snomobile engine and suspension parts (polished or not).

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

zoopseal.. might be pricy but 10x better then a wax.
last 2-3yrs with out a repolish

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

if it wasn't so pricey i'd try it out...looks interesting. however putting a coating that's clear over a wheel that costs as much as it does only to have it turn yellow after awhile worries me.

i'd like to see some applications and then how they react after baking.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

Jeff,

zoopseal isnt a baking process. and it wont Yellow.

its like a wax so to say. Mix part A w/ Part B let it setup spray on like a liquid mist. buff in and off.

85SportCoupeto89RS

Zoopseal is actually wiped on by cloth. Its actually very easy to do but its not sprayable as far as I know. And it wont turn yellow.

Kandied, when you saw that Zoopseal demostration was it done by the people who own zoopseal or someone not affilated what so ever with them? I'm wondering since you told me before that you saw it demostrated and it came out crap tacular.
I'm thinking that who ever did the demo didnt know what they were doing. The only time that you will get a yellow coating is if you mix chemical a and b together and dont allow the two to mix and become clear. When you first mix them they are yellowish and cloudy, after 4 hours and a few shaking process inbetween the solution will become clear. Thats when zoopseal is suppose to be applied and removed.

I'll attach a pic of a crossfire injection air cleaner cover that I polished and zoopsealed. This is a close up with the zoopseal on and the final buffing compound applied.

flrtin1

I have been looking at the Zoops for my blower with the heat it oxidizes really fast, but I haven't talked to anyone that’s used it yet. According to their web site heat...short of exhaust.... helps cure the ceramic in it.
The guy that I am building the 8-71/355 for may want to split the cost with me so we can do his blower when it is new out of the box so hopefully in about two months I might have some experience with it

Kandied91z

iTrader: (7)

what i meant by baking was applying it as directed and then to "advance" the intended time bake it like a powder coat to see if it yellows.

i just don't trust spraying something like that on my billet parts unless i could see something with some significant use on it. i've tried ceramics, high temp clears, etc and they all end up making things worse then helping.

although it's a pita at times to deal with the polished parts i'd rather put in the effort then half to buy new wheels a year later or settle for powdercoat because the metal was stained.

as far as the demonstration...what i saw was supposedly from the company themselves, at least representatives anyhow. either way it wasn't as appealing as i'd like. at the same time though they used it on hot rod tv with good results so who knows.

i'd have to see it to try it though. i was skeptical with por-15 until i saw it and i like that stuff so....