Picked up a spare BBM instake manifold with plans to polish it up.

Well - after many hours of hard rubbing and grinding - I have finally finished!
At least as far as I can be bothered.

Work in progress - just over half way;


Completed manifold;


I also spent an hour and a half yesterday fitting it.
Pretty daunting task for an accountant - but it's done with only one minor bit of damage - snapped a small t-piece vacuum hose joiner at the back of the manifold. Will update with a picture of the engine bay soon.

now that looks good, i talked to some guy bout doing this to mine he

just said it wasnt possible (eg. he couldnt be botherd helping me out)

>> how i did you go about it, iv got a few spare bbm's lying round might

give it a go myself

Nice job...takes a bit doesn't it?.....I'm over polishing stuff like that...looks good when its first on, but it takes a bit to keep it that way......so paint does it now....LOL.
Remember to keep up polishing it, or it will degrade.......once again, nice job......

Nicely done mate, did you give a coat of clear paint to make sure your not re polishing it all the time?

I take my hat off to you mate, excellent job there!! Ive done it to my BBM so i know whats involved and its not easy at all, its no wonder a lot of metal polishing places wont do jobs like that hey..

What did you use for grinding it back? Just sand paper or did you use some sort of grinding wheel/discs? Also what polishing compound did you use? Came out looking bloody awesome, the finish is perfect!!

Thanks all for the feedback.
It looks much better in the pictures I tell you - After doing the first half and centre section, I got slack, but most of the back half is under the air inlet piping anyway. And to get inbetween the humps is very hard - but you cant see it unless you stick your hear right over the top of it - so I just did what i could as best I could.

I lost count of the hours, and I never really got a system going - so I didn't get much efficiency happening. I would just work on one "hump", then next time I'd come back and do the next.
Worst bit would be when you dinged a bit you'd done, creating more work to correct it, etc.

Tools I used were;

Drill with accessories
- brass wire brush to get rid of dirt and bring up clean;
- flap sanders - 60 grit, 80 grit, 120 grit;

Air die grinder with various shaped tips

Dremel with various tips to get in the hard to reach places

Wet and dry sandpaper - 400/600/800 - I only used them dry though - didn't want to make a wet mess

Drill with "sizal" disk - used a black polishing compound that came in the polishing kit I got from bunnings

Drill with soft disk and Autosol polish



The rough flap sanders really helped smooth off the casting pores.


After having done by hand the thermostat cover, and starting to do the front of the rocker cover - and now this - I think I am over it too! My wife thinks I am a tool because no-one will really ever see it - but I know you guys understand

I have not coated it in anything- but remember reading a polish with some wax might help maintain the shine?

Man thats a thourough job, flap sanders do a good job aye, i used those quite a bit when i did mine. I went half assed on the last 3 runners lol, the intake piping hides mine really well

I havent coated mine, just left it with the polished surface and all it needs is a quick run over with Autosol once a month if your fussy as it keeps its shine pretty well. Spraying clear coat will make the alloy lose most of its shine as ive found with spraying clear coat over most polished alloy things, dont know if a clear powdercoat might work or not though

^^^
Clear on it will actually tarnish a yellowy colour most likley, due to heat etc.

Looking good, how hard was it to refit, as I'm thinking of doing one, but concerned about removal and refit.

Also does anyone know what the internal construction of one is like, eg, does it have a whole lot of tiny cavity or just 6 big carving?

Got a pic of it fitted next to the barra. Also considered the ecu? come on...

This is the inside of the upper part of it
Havent got any pics of the bottom half but it is just a continuation of the runners, but the inner runners (side closest to the rocker cover) lead into 6 butterflies which open at certain RPM. Hope that makes sense

The fitting is actually quite straightfoward - but the hex bolts holding the upper and lower sections together are hell tight - and a few of them are too narrowly spaced to get a socket/hex on - so a long allen key is needed - I used a bit of pipe on the end of the allen key to give me leverage.
So it was easy to do in the end - I am an accountant and managed it - but tight bolts.

Here are some engine bay pics. Light is early morning so not the best.





Done some preliminary rubbing on the existing ECU cover - but may buy an aftermarket alloy cover - not sure yet

Looks fuggin excellent!

Those B series BBMs still look identical to the E-series

Cheers - having half a** polished the same part on my EF (the car I had before this one) I'd agree with you

dam thats nice

thats looks great ive already started polishing some bits on my EF but dont have a polisher as of yet so havent started polishing it only sanded it i wanna do the BBM but it would take ages sanding it all by hand
anyone know where i could get a cheap bench polisher or some sort of polishing pad for a drill i have a big polisher/grinder but its too powerful.

thats because they are basically the same as the e series ef-au units.. although the trend has finished with the new compisite plastic FG intakes.. that look like poo compared to a polished aluminium bbm..

top work BTW!. i know how many hours are involved.. and looking like a grey oompa loompa from the sanding..

s.. those exact exhaust header heat shields polish up veeeeery good btw!!