DA is fine as long as you work radially down the length of the tube. Actually, you wont get as heavy of grit lines from the 320 DA. I could see doing it just as easy with a strip of emery cloth. Although emery usually comes in 1" rolls which would wear very fast. Using say a 3" strip from a roll of paper for doing body work would be the ticket if I were going that way. As far as flat spots go, apply just enough pressure to get the pad to flex around the tube. Then work your way down the tube by stroking side to side wrapping as far as you can. Then flip and repeat. Might have to do it in four sides. In the polish shop we would stick our fingers in the ends of the tube and hold it on the wheel just right so it would spin as we fed it down the length of the tube. That was the perfect way to create a brushed look that went around a tube instead of up and down it. If we couldnt get our fingers in because of the length we would had a special way of holding the tube while applying pressure with our belly. We had a 1/2" thick pad called a belly pad for obvious reasons. I used to do 4' sticks of stainless at a time for a local rod builder. He would then bend it and bring it back and I would just touch up the spots that got damaged bending.
A lot of things are done that way really. Hand rails for boats come to mind. I would just go at the welds with a Dewalt buffer with a 10"x 1/2" buff. Using the 1/2" side to polish. Rims and all kinds of things can be done like that.

Sorry for the reminiscing. I dont miss the work but I sure do miss being able to take a swap meet intake and flip it for 4x the money. Valve covers were my bread and butter for a minute too.

 

Polishing is an art, and for those of us who are amateurs it can be a real pain! I just finished polishing the cast cross ram intake that I just installed on my new 355 in the Austin, and when it was done I swore off polishing anything from a cast finish ever again!

 

Thanks Val. Not everyone see's it as an art. Most just see guys who are fifty from head to toe and won't give you the time of day. I loved when I would have a black face ( literally) and people would kind of shy away when talking to me if I were getting lunch at the sandwich shop across from work. Then I would go in on the weekend or something and being well spoken they wouldn't recognize me. I got a few dates that way.

Your cross ram unfortunately was cast in the dark ages of die cast. The metal was dirty from a metallurgic point of view. They don't know of the impurities. Now A380 the most common aluminum for car parts comes from the supplier with a spectral anyalisis done for each bundle of ingots. I did an old Offy dual port 360 once. That was a bear. The sand and carbon was just a nightmare.

For yours I would have made my own flap wheels for a die grinder. Start with 3" wide paper usually with a medium backing like J weight. X weight this fine too but j is better. Then tear the paper in 4" sections. Do this until when you stack them all up they are about 1" thick. Drill a hole in the center about 1/4" dia. Then I would place two face down in an X pattern. Then two more so there was 8 points, lining up the drilled hole is more important than it behind perfectly round. Then place two more in an X with the grit face up trying to fill the gaps between points. Then continue the pattern until when I was done there was grit facing up. You should actually be stacking them on a 1" cap screw with a flat washer. Forgot that part. Then put a washer and nut on tightening as tight as you can get it. No need for monkey strength but tight. Chuck that bad boy in your cut off wheel/ die grinder and it will cut the rough stuff. Follow with a lower grit made the same way. After about ten minutes of use it will wear itself perfectly round. 80g if it is beat up and you have to blend a chunk missing out. 180 over that and then 320. You can spray WD or any other oil on the 320 to help cut. Remember it will sling the first bit.

There you go a way to do it without leaving cut lines everywhere like a Bob does. Probably would work on the exhaust tubing too.

 

Thanks Damon! I was trying to not lose the Weiand name, or the "Say Why-And" logo below the name. Very traditional and dates the intake, so losing it would hurt! I ended up using Roloc sanding discs in my die grinder, and then block sanding to get rid of the heavy grinder marks that were found under the sandblast finish.
I still have to do a little polishing when the old finned valve covers arrive, but they're polished, so just giving them a re-polish.

 

Yup that set up will walk right across the name and clean up the pitting right to the edge of it. The intake looks damn good for a hand job. Yup said it. I mostly worked a soft backed 180g followed by a 320g with a polishing grease to keep from building heat. Heat will bring out more holes. Obviously spinning the wheel faster will stiffen it up and it will cut more but it will also cut more. LOL Meaning the edges will cut in leaving ripples and lines. turning down the regulator will get you a softer wheel that flows over curves better and is way nicer for blending. To go fast and still be soft make a tear or two equally spaced in each strip. Leave your self an inch or so in the middle. This is a finger flap.

P.S. That is a wicked MC cap. Custom?

 

The MC is a Subaru, so the cap was an ugly yellow plastic thing. I painted it black and added this $2 swap meet alternator pulley cover to try and make it look better.

 

Make it work! I knew it was a pulley but I thought you just set it on there for a second.

 

I was checking out the local CL ads and happened across this "sick wing" and thought you guys might enjoy this one. Who knows, maybe somebody wants this thing as it apparently makes your car REALLY fast! Enjoy.


sick wing

 

Haven't seen those, except on ricer cars. Occasionally I've picked up the riveted aluminum wings at local swap meets if they're cheap enough. Then I stick them on CL locally and make good money on them. Seems the riveted aluminum wings are more universal, and will fit lots of body shapes, so never a problem selling them at a profit if I get them cheap enough.

 

I'm confident that's quite accurate. Just in case there was some confusion, I posted this only for entertainment value alone. There was no seriousness to my comments. Yes I'm sure there's money to be made from swap meet wings but then again, there's a guy on CL that's been trying to sell one of the aluminum wings you speak of for over 3 years here, with no luck, at $69, new in the box. The mystery of the "sick wing" post is if the guy is being serious himself or not with his comment about it making his car too fast, and why it had to be removed. I can't help but wonder how it'd look mounted to the cover on the back of my truck? Now where did I put that can of plastic hardener I had the other day??