Regarding the Classic Trucks article mentioned earlier, the product is named SCX Crystal Clear by Specialized Coatings in Huntington Beach, CA. Website is www.specializedcoating.com and they mention they are beginning to do a lot of new billet wheels with this process. Phone is 714.901.2628

 

Friend of mine has a powder coating business in Tampa and does a fair bit of clear coat work on polished aluminum intake manifolds. They come out looking real nice and I've not heard of any problems with it. I had my old Edmunds manifold coated in Charcoal gray metallic powder with a clear powder overcoat. Looks good and will match up nicely with the gray ceramic coated headers. My friend doesn't think that the engine will get hot enough to bother the intake manifold...heads might be a different story.

 

Got my first "trial" piece of highly polished aluminum trim back from the anodizer. If you look way back up in this post I mentioned I was sending off a piece.

The piece came back looking very good. If I put it beside a polished piece that has not been anodized I can tell it has a slight haze in the finish now. By itself though, you can hardly tell. The only noteworthy problem is that pits in the metal that were invisible after polishing (ie: very small pits) enlarged somewhat during the electrochemical treatment. Still though, they are so small I'm probably the only person that will notice - particularly once it's mounted on the truck and driven a bit.

I had my trial piece done in Spokane, WA at Inland Empire Plating. Let me know if you don't have a local anodizer and want their contact information. You can find platers/anodizers in your area (by area code) at: http://www.gy.com/biz/332813/

 

I would not fuss or waste my time with all the other stuff...

Personally I have polished most of my engine bay on a late model supercharged car. I could host pics if need be....I use ZOOP SEAL and applied it 3 years ago with great results. The metal still has the finish it had when I applied the product. Maintnance is minimal as well. It is a sealer and can last for years depending on the environment its in. My particular car is a 4 season daily driver in Eastern Washington. We get all the seasons out here. The only thing is that you have to apply this product exactly by the instructions for it to work proper. $130 is pretty cheap considering you have a few applications worth of product that could last years at a time. And who knows you may want to ZOOP something else down the road...


BRAD