We have to take some nice photos of a car. Everything is powdercoated a chrome silver and the intake manifold is filthy in comparison. I suggested a ceramic paint job and Corky said it was too much work. Any ideas?
Stephanie

 

Wire wheel brush?

 

close the hood, are you going to remove it to fix it up?

 

Ceramic would retain heat in the manifold.

 

Sandblast it then clear coat it...or just skip the clear coat.

 

Wash it down with some muriatic acid, that would clean it right up.

 

Scrub it or pour on? (Stephanie has never used Muriatic acid before, can you tell?)
Stephanie

 

It has a very strong odor when using it, so do it in a well ventilated area. I'd lightly scrub to prevent too much from getting on things. You can also dillute it with water and it will work almost as well as full strength. Chemical or acid resistant brush, I think I've used parts washer brushes, the ones with thick black strands.

Easy Off oven cleaner also works extremely well. Low odor version is nice.

 

Sorry, I wasn't really recommending muriatic acid. It will work as a dilute wash but it isn't really safe in any way. It might damage things like powdercoat and whatnot.
If you want to clean it up just get some of that Gunk engine wash, that stuff works great for cleaning aluminum and grease. Probably the same thing as easy off oven cleaner, they're all acids I guess.

 

red scotch-brite pad gave mine a nice dull shine....

 

I did the same thing, comes out pretty good.
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found a better shot:

 

sooo you used this
and it came out like that? Would it also work on the valve cover?

 

Steph, Photoshop works well.

 

Heh, i can just imagine the shitstorm that would blow up if that ever got out. lol.

 

FWIW, muriatic acid will discolor stainless steel, and remove paint...

 

Muriatic acid will remove galvanizing from steel too. Ask me how I know.

 

I used an 'aluminum' spray paint. It's grey with a little flake in it, and makes the surface a little rough. I can find out the brand if you really want but I'm sure there's a few out there. Cleaned off the big dirty stuff with brake cleaner and put a few coats on. Seems obvious but no one mentioned it. My manifold in this pic was filthy and I just sprayed 2 coats. Looks good in this pic, looked even better when it was first done.

 

I bead blasted mine, but of course you have to remove it to do that.

 

if you want it super silver shiny you can dremel it. there is a guy in the miata.net classifieds who apparently does it for pretty cheap. i saw his post, never used him.