Anybody Un-polish an intake?

[ttopstang]

I've got a polished alum intake that I want to paint but was wondering if anybody knows how to un-polish it? I have access to a sand blaster, but what media would be best to use? Is there any chemicals that take the polish out of it?

And I'm NOT sanding this thing down, I'm tired of sanding stuff, if that's the only option, I'll leave it polished.

 

[Ozz]

There's no polish "in" it to be taken out, you'd have to either rough up the surface, sand it, or cover it with paint or something else. Sand or any rough media will scuff it up and give it a raw, blasted look. Not sure what you want out of it except for it to no longer be shiny, but blasting it will do at least that.

 

[ttopstang]

I meant to rough it up to apply paint. Would sand be the best, or soda, I even have some walnut shells?

 

[Ozz]

I don't know too much about paint prep but the sand will probably be too aggressive. Soda is usually for that but I'm not sure if it's aggressive enough to rough up the polished surface for starters. Never used walnuts so I can't say about that.

 

[ttopstang]

I thought sand would be too aggressive too.

I'll try a few spots on the back of the intake that won't be seen and see what works best.

 

[srtthis]

wire wheel on a drill to scuff.. then paint

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

If you're just scuffing it for paint, get a green Scotchbrite pad and use that. Otherwise glass bead blasting will give the surface an extremely fine texture that i've found will hold paint very well. I've done a lot of valve covers this way, i used to have a hookup for glass bead blasting.

 

[Rick 91GT]

Id glass bead and Powdercoat the thing....powdercoat over a polish finish looks great IMO.

 

[Boosted92LX]

+1 beadblast

 

[Vanessa91]

What Rick said.
Before Blasting

After

After paint

Blast and powder coat will look the best.