Polishing the Rocker cover. - Cisco's Micra Files

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 09:20:57 PM
	I have just removed my rocker cover and have started the long process of polishing it. I am doing it for two reasons. One there is noone up here that does it and two tis not that hard and needed to be done. Will post pics of before and after and then how i did it. At this stage it is coming up pretty good. Also am making a air box so will do the same for that.

sportsclassic » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 09:28:06 PM
	nice, engine bay looks alot better when its done. what are you using to polish it? i used a bench grinder with a soft polishing attachment on it, used some cutting compound and metal polish.

tris » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 09:29:45 PM
	yeah i wanted to do this... or even maybe spray it black.. would love to see some pics!!! and how its done! pics of the airbox would be sweet too!! tris

deNs » CMF Member Melbourne Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 09:54:16 PM
	Sprayed mine black with VHT paint.. worked well. Had a spare cam cover (since afaik the CG13 doesn't have rockers ;)) so thought I may as well! I found out that the best way to keep the letters unpainted was to use cello tape on the raised areas straight after painting when it's still wet then repeat that til it's clear, then use a scalpel to remove the excess if any was missed. Don't have any pics of it from memory though. Don't see the point in taking pics of such a boring engine bay :P ---dens

tris » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 09:56:49 PM
	haha yeah... sounds good when i got some time ill give it a go... YAY got uni hols coming up soon... 7 weeks off!!! massive car working bee... hah

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 10:03:19 PM
	Mine was really fuckskied... Needs alot of work. I have sanded it with 600 then 800 then 1200 and will finish with 2000 wet and dry paper. then will be finishing with a polishing tool and some metal polish. For a hours work so far it has come up pretty good. Will post pics soon. in the next couple days. I will also take measurements of the air box and do pics up of that so you can all copy.

sportsclassic » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 10:07:19 PM
	sikK11 WROTE: "Mine was really fuckskied... Needs alot of work. I have sanded it with 600 then 800 then 1200 and will finish with 2000 wet and dry paper. then will be finishing with a polishing tool and some metal polish. For a hours work so far it has come up pretty good. Will post pics soon. in the next couple days. I will also take measurements of the air box and do pics up of that so you can all copy." good work!

D1cefiro » CMF Member Brisbane Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sun 18 May 2008 11:54:39 PM
	deNs WROTE: "Sprayed mine black with VHT paint.. worked well. Had a spare cam cover (since afaik the CG13 doesn't have rockers ;)) so thought I may as well! I found out that the best way to keep the letters unpainted was to use cello tape on the raised areas straight after painting when it's still wet then repeat that til it's clear, then use a scalpel to remove the excess if any was missed. Don't have any pics of it from memory though. Don't see the point in taking pics of such a boring engine bay :P ---dens" If your painting raised letters on your cam cover here is a little trick. Do all your prep work....paint it whatever colour you like.....dont worry about taping letters or anything, leave to dry. Then once dry run a file over the top of the letters....this will bring the paint off the top of the lettering. It will look a nice bright metal silver colour. You can do this with brake calipers with raised lettering too. Job done.

deNs » CMF Member Melbourne Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Mon 19 May 2008 12:16:04 AM
	Yeah you could do that too, and it'd probably be more effective actually. Just make sure you don't scratch that new paint accidentally ;) ---dens

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Tue 20 May 2008 07:02:50 AM
	ok it is all finished Not 100% due to the lack of time i could keep the car off the road but still i am happy as it is 150% better then before. Am just finishing the paint today and will post pics of before and after. I have to go down to 240 grit paper and then to 400-600-800-1200-2000 grit. There was some really bad spots. But all is good.

sarge3uk » CMF Member sheffield United Kingdom Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Tue 20 May 2008 06:39:14 PM
	i had some really bad spots too but is all done but then i sprayed it because i found a colour i really like

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 09:32:10 PM
	had enough of trying to clean around the lettering so i took it off. Looks really good now and very shiny.

tris » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 09:33:02 PM
	pics??

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 09:49:25 PM
	there coming now. I just uploading to image shack...wont be to long.

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:17:14 PM
	pic

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:17:38 PM
	after

sportsclassic » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:19:56 PM
	looks nice!

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:21:28 PM
	thanks. I think tis a big improvement. The air box goes of to get done this week will post pics of that aswell. when i get it back

cisco » CMF Member Canberra Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:25:28 PM
	That looks unreal, what did you use? I used to use "silvo" and a high speed drill buffing wheel thing.

tris » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:32:34 PM
	WOW.... yeah amazing... i didnt realise it would actualy come up shiny..... did you spray the black part??? looks cool cos its diff colours!! pitty you cant see the missan 16 valve bit... looks great irrespective!!

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:35:11 PM
	i started with i belt sander and took the lettering off then that let scratches. I then hit it with the scotch pad belt and then 180grit then 240grit then 400grit then 600 grit then 800 grit then 1200 grit then 2000 grit and finished it off with a bench grinder with a polishing wheel. I actually liked doing it and getting a good end result. Thought about polishing them on the wekend for a small fee but not sure if there would be enough of a demand. Not sure of the pollish to finish it was a green stick thing you wipe on the polishing wheel. Very happy with it though.

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:36:38 PM
	tris WROTE: "WOW.... yeah amazing... i didnt realise it would actualy come up shiny..... did you spray the black part??? looks cool cos its diff colours!! pitty you cant see the missan 16 valve bit... looks great irrespective!!" Yeah i sprayed it black in between. You can see the nissan still. I could have polished it out but it looks good kinda like a holagram or something weird but very nice. Could have got it better if i had time but the car had to go back on the road today

tris » CMF Member sydney Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:40:40 PM
	just spray paint?? anything special?? like heat resistant paint??

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Wed 21 May 2008 10:41:49 PM
	VHT matt black i think it was. heat resistant up to around 400degrees i think it was not to sure... Bout 16 bucks a can.

LonePhantom » CMF Member Canberra Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 07:45:20 AM
	That looks great. Only thing I think that would make it look better would be if the writing was painted black as well. Good work though! :-)

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 11:29:23 AM
	yeah i did that to start with but i could not polish in between the writing and it all just looked shit. The easyiest way was to take the writing off. So that is what i did. I am sure you could buy a small polishing bit to get in between the writing

fred » CMF Member Murwillumbah Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 03:14:47 PM
	that is a-maz-ing... i bow the the a knee of patience to you, I need a big pic though before you get a full double hander bow! ;)

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 08:45:46 PM
	I can email you one if you like... send me ya email addy

Tony » CMF Member Brisbane Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 09:01:34 PM
	Mate would love a big pic to if you have one,Did you get my email?

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 09:02:57 PM
	yeah think so will try send it now.

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 09:05:48 PM
	it is uploading to my email now. Might take a while though as it is 1.7mb As i said i could have gotten it alot better if i had the time. The air box got welded tonight. Is very simple in design with only two sides. But will work and look good when polished to.

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Thu 22 May 2008 09:11:05 PM
	email sent to you Tony.

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Sat 24 May 2008 11:54:22 PM
	the air box is done. Wimple design but look fantastic. Could not be happier. Just gotta drill the hole for the inntake piping and run the cold air feed. Polish it and boooya done. I will speak to the guy who did them and post pics when all done. He might want to do a few more. Who would be interested. It is a two sided box using the chasis to seal it. Can supply with the cold air feed piping and all screws. Cut tig welded and fully polished. Who might be interested. Have to say though this air box sits on the left side of the engine and covers the washer bottle. Is easy to pull out goes from the tower to the headlight. Removal of headlight at track days will be great.

Micra Nut » CMF Member Ireland Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Fri 06 Jun 2008 08:59:15 AM
	That is a savage job you done, real show car job. IM going to start mine in the next day or two. If it turns out anywhere near yours i will be well happy. Great job

sikK11 » CMF Member Darwin Australia Member since: Posts:	Re: Polishing the Rocker cover.	Fri 06 Jun 2008 08:38:35 PM
	cheers mate. I will post pics tomorrow for you with the air box done and in. Now if people are interested in them the guy will make more. A full sheet of Alloy is about 350 and he can get 12 boxes out of that. Plus the 3 inch mandrel bend is about $40 silicon hosing is supplied by you. If people want the air box done it only takes a week to do them all. Not sure on total price but should not be to bad. If i can get around that many people interested then i will look into it for you boy. Mine has come up great.