671 blower. To polish or not?

I have a 671 blower that I'm rebuilding/converting. I'm at the point of reassembling it. I see a lot of high dollar blowers on here that appear to be polished from the factory. I have limited polishing experience. I made my own tri-cover and rear bearing cover plates, they turned out nice, But the blower is a whole nother animal. has anybody done this and what would I need as far as equipment? I have a 1/2 hp elec motor I can use and build a stand with pulleys etc.

 

Just bead blast it and call it a day! I like the cast finish....

 

I have had them both ways like raw cast but polished sure clean easier..

 

X2
Doc.

 

It really depends on the vibe of your car....A non polished blower is a little more bussiness like in my opinion, but the polished looks way more pretty.

I went with a non polished on mine because I thought it was more tough guy, but now I see D.W. and Tudors and kinda want to go the other way.



As for polishing the blower, there is not much to it. Sand the case to 400 or so and get out the buffing wheel. Expect to have no fingerprints and black boogers for kind of a long time..

Good luck, -Abone.

 

Flamedabone got it right. For a bully-boy look the as cast sure looks mean.

 

I like the black powder coated with the ribs is bare aluminum....looks tough!

 

You could paint the case and pollish the ribs. This looks good with the polished ends. i would go either engine color or black wrinkel finish.

 

What about a Satin Polish like to 800 grit to give a slicker surface to clean but still a business like appearance . I love satin polish. jobs!

 

just polish the ribs with 600-1000 grit paper and call it a day

 

I like em "cast" I agree with the other guys that it makes them look meaner

 

If you don't have experience polishing the cast aluminum to a shine you will begin to wish you never started it about half way through. Getting it to look like those really nice ones you see either takes hours and hours of patience or someone who knows what they are doing.
As far as the post on having black boogers man I would highly recommend wearing a cheap dust mask as least! Ingesting aluminum causes Alzheimers man!
It would probably cost a bit of $$ to have someone do it for you though.
For the DIY I would say go with the black and polish the ribs. Looks cool and easy to do!

 

If you polish it and then tumble it , it will have the look of cast , but a smooth finish that you can just wipe down.

 

I sandblasted it already, looks clean but I noticed when I got some oil or dirt on it ,it was a PTA to clean off. I like the Idea of painting it and polishing The ribs but heard on here that the paint would come of due to heat expansion/contraction etc. Has anybody here done this successfully? I know when it was a diesel it was painted. My pulleys came from motorpartsfanaticseller
and they are beautifully polished, I made my own carb top plate and Idler bracket that Im going to polish.

 

A local gearhead stopped by here yesterday to look at some 348 parts. Showd him my 55, he asked "is that an 8-71?" like many others have asked over the years. It's an unpolished 6-71, the big block has stock painted valve covers. I think having it raw makes it look bigger.....

old pic:

 

A buddy of mine polished one that he got and he spent about 3 days polishing it and it turned out pretty nice...not as nice as the ones that you buy polished but pretty damn nice either way

 

Always thought unpolished made them look more menacing

 

If I was to build a Buffer with my 1/2 hp 3450 rpm motor would I run it 1 to 1 on the pulley? also how big of a wheel can I use? I was thinking 8"
After all you cant have too many tools and it would be a great way to learn a new skill . If it turns out like crap I can just sandblast it again.

 

Whats the style of your build? More show car? or more go? I'd go with the cast look mainly because I'm getting lazy...lol.

 

With a blower that's never been polished, you'll spend most of your time sanding, not polishing. And it's tricky to get it flat and smooth, the ribs are in the way. Expect to spend a lot of time on it, but with patience you'll have a nice looking blower.

 

Better check with your suppliers of wheels first! Not sure they are designed for a 3450 rpm motor. Most are for 1750 rpm motors.

 

I would do it as Squirrel has his, the high polished ones seem to fog and you end up putting the finish shine on them a lot.

 

I agree raw cast looks more machine, less jewelry=more business/menacing.

If you dont really want a show piece, but want low maintenance, you can clean it with brake cleaner or whatever, then clear coated with a flat or satin clear powerder coat.

I had my Cal Custom finned valve covers garnet blasted then cleared. The garnet blast lightened them a bit, then the clear darkened it back down again.

rick

 

X2, sprayed mine with crinkle black, didn't polish the ribs....but it was different.

 

I like the cast finish with polished ribs. If you were to do that, Id wet sand starting at 320 and finishing in 800-1000 grit then use some Busch's aluminum polish. I love that stuff.