Owner built on a budget;

[Hray]

Bob: I am leaning your way, actually I was leaning that way to start with, but my way was going to be quicker and easier. But, why take the quick way or easy way. Chatted with my local gearhead down the street on this and he was not averse to it.

Build update: Only got about 2 hours in today, more honey dooooossss.

I worked on the mustang ii power steering rack. It was really grungy and all the lines on it were somewhat heavily surface rusted. Plus I want to smooth it up some so it would be easier to keep clean. Here is a picture, along with the tools used to do the job.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/...a8b586fd_b.jpg

Here is how I did it, first I used the little angle grinder with 36 grit paper to take off the heavy casting marks, then when almost gone I switch to 100 grit and finish removal of casting lines and begin to work on the casting orange peel and rough edges. Just when almost smooth I switch to 180 grit with angle grinder to get it smooth. Then I will switch to the rotary tool with the flapper tool in the picture to go over the entire surface and get into areas and ridges some. Then if i want real shin I go back to the angle with the scotch pads and eventually cloth with compound. In this case not going to go with high gloss. Once finished I will wash it with soap and water and use most likely number 1 steel wool to even the satin finish out and to basically dull it down just a little. Total time in this rack so far is about 2 hours, most likely one more hour will make it ready to bag up and wait to reinstall it. If I were going for show shin I would spend another 4 to 5 hours on it, stepping up to finer grits and compounds until it looks like chrome.

[If you are paying a shop to do this forget it, just go purchase a show polished one and install it much cheaper. My way is the cheap frugil way, unfortunately, I work for free.

Hoping to get at least 8 hours on the car tomorrow.

Hey Bob: If I go with the silver frame in front half of car can I switch to black under the firewall and carry that back to the rear of car. yea, I know now I am getting lazy.

see ya all.... Ray