How to disquise aluminum heads

I have a set of AFR aluminum heads for my 302 SBF. It's hard to p*** up 50+ hp. Besides rounding off the sharp edges and painting them Ford blue what can I do to make them more look like factory cast steel heads?

 

Aluminum heads are nothing to be ashamed of.

 

Strip them bare and bead/sand blast the exposed visable surfaces then paint.

Andy.

 

I dont think sandblasting will create a rough enough finish(and its a pain to strip them)how about attacking them with a pneumatic needle scaler? will make them look all stippled like cast iron in no time! no dis***embly required. (keep some old rocker covers on just to keep any little chips out)

 

I'd leave them the way they are... But that's just me.. I have a set of Trick-Flow's on mine and never bothered to paint them..

 

I did some on my g***er with a pick hammer on the front flat surface. Than painted them.

 

Smooth the block to match the heads.

 

That is the way I'ld go

 

Etching primer to bond to surface. Sprinkle some shiney parts on top of motor to draw the eye.

 

I was going to suggest the same

smooth the block and the heads, and than paint them all the same color..it'll be hard to tell..especially at 70 MPH

 

Close the hood?

 

smooth block and paint it all...

 

dull the edges and paint them, I doubt most folks will notice

 

A few years ago someone posted a thread about disguising aluminum heads on an early Corvette. The went as far as to grind the right casting marks and fill the bolt holes of the ends of the heads. I've looked for the thread a couple of times, but I can't find it.

I used a needle scaler to rough up an intake and make it look cast. It works pretty good when the tool is new, not so good when it's been used quite a bit.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=356311

And I've seen people suggest laying sandpaper on the surface and using a hammer to texture the surface.
Larry T

 

And then hey presto - you're an instant street rodder....

 

They were doing it on 50s and 60s kustoms................

 

what's it in ?????????

 

out of curiousity....how many hours would a person get into smoothing out a block and heads?

 

1968 Intermeccanica Italia GFX spyder. You can't see the block. Anyways, I want it to "look" stock. I usually don't mention the 375+ hp, 5-speed, and 3.8 rear.

 

Hell just scale the heads a bit and smooth the edges... then paint em..

 

ship them to me for proper disposal then go out and buy a respectable set of low flow iron heads

 

Just picked up a pair of aluminum heads for my 327 in the Austin, and I'm going to make a copy of the little "camel humps" for the front of the heads and epoxy them on in the correct location.
I think it will be fun to see if people notice the humps and ***ume they're old 1.94's.

 

Couldn't agree more----

 

Bore some soft plug holes in the ends like the factory heads had. Fools the tech dudes at the track !! >>>>.

 

Why ?

 

Get a march pulley system..... no one will be looking at the heads

 

Didnt a company produce a set of aluminum head that looked like old camel humps? Id say you could blast em with a steel shot instead of sand or gl*** beads. Thats what the cup shops do to there intakes after they slice em in half to do a ridiculous amount of porting.

 

mask them off and sprap them then while the paint is still wet sprinkle brake filings from turning rotors or drums and paint over them, done right they will look like iron heads and they will even hold a magnet.

 

Must be an early model - later ones had the 351 C....

 

Advise not to follow. Fools are everywhere.