How To Restore A Fox Mustang 5.0 Intake Cover/plate

danny g

Founding Member
Sep 23, 1999
375
5
18
Hello,

I just restored my 5.0 intake plate and had pretty good results. There is so much good info on this site and the web in general that I decided to share my experience. Hopefully this helps someone else.

Materials:
1. cardboard, pizza box, newspaper etc
2. chemical stripper
3. wire brush
4. high temp paint
5. sandpaper
6. paper towels

Steps:

1. Take the plate off the car. It's four screws.
2. Glob some paint stripper on and let it sit for 20 minutes
3. Get the wire brush and go at it. Wipe off gunk, then use hot soap and water. Dry immediately.
4. Shake up paint and apply several light coats. Following directions on drying times between coats. I waited 20 min between LIGHT coats and the 24 hours until sanding.
5. Sanded with a heavy duty paper at first then with fine grit.
6. Wipe off and install on intake.

Now the results are not perfect but much much better then before. I did not prime anything. Not sure how it will last. If it turns to crap in a few months ill try again with priming and let everyone know.
 

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Close to the same process for me. I sanded it down as best I could then hit it with some primer, base coat then several coats of high temp clear with a 1 hour bake in the oven (when the wifey was out!) after the base coat was dry for 24 I used a fine buffing pad attached to a grinder to buff the paint off the "raised" part of the plate. Turned out really good!
 
Very nice!

Whats your methods in polishing these things if you dont mind me asking???

Do you sell them?


I use the following

Various Wire wheels- 7" buffing, drill, dremel
DA /belt/ drill/dremel/ hand sanding 60, 220, 400, 500, 1000, 1500 grits
7" Buffing wheel with various wheels and compounds- black, red, white
Mothers mag wheel poish

There are several good videos out there on how to buff pieces. Eastwood and Harbor Freight sell everything you need. It takes a lot of practice and time to get it done right. I am very anal about the appearance.

Yes I sell them. I used to sell many pieces a month but slowed down some as I am not as young as I used to be and it is very labor intensive, plus it is getting very hard to find these pieces in good working order. The JY have doubled the prices ( $50 for valve covers!) and frankly I make little on them when you consider the cost of the part, supplies, and my time. I mostly sell them local to the car show guys. I think I have 1 IAC, 2 EGR 1 intake plate, 2 tensioners and a set of valve covers left.

I am mostly polishing pieces for my cars and some friend these days.
 
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I got tired of chasing spots and dust on a polished intake, so I cleaned and painted a se one upper. The high temp silver paint from Napa looks like the right powder coat and is sticking well. The plate already was painted right with the low spots in body color. If I needed to, I would use masking tape and cut out the areas with a razor blade that needed a second color.