Materials used:
Wet/Dry sand paper 100 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit, 600 grit, 1500 grit.
Mother Mags Billet polishing
Water
Ok first off...if you want to do this the results are well worth it, but you gotta make sure that you have a lot of time and patience. This is not something that will take twenty minutes and think that your FMIC will be blinging...So just follow these steps and you should have a pretty good result....I would also like to thank my good friend Mike, Boostmaster123, who helped and taught me how to do this. Mad props to Mike, thanks bro.
First off I dont know if every FMIC is "polishable" this was done to a Hahn Race Craft FMIC and here it goes its pretty simple...You might want to get a sand block to use for it will put A LOT less stress on your fingers and make the sanding nice and even. I didnt have one which made my results not as best as could be and put the hurting on my fingers...
First you want to start off with low grit wet/drysand paper...we started out with 320 grit but soon realized we were joking ourselfs and then went to low grit sand paper. 100 grit to be exact. So we then "went to town" with the 100 grit paper and then it got a lot of the pits out of the FMIC REAL quick. 100 grit is a good size to work the end tanks because you can apply hard pressure without causing damage to anything. It will get the pits out fast but will leave it with a rough surface with the 100 grit. You have to rub hard on the endtanks but be careful when you are doin the fins. They might bend and you dont want that.
We found it to be easier to sand up and down on the fins which dont seem to bend the fins. It doesnt get the pits out as good as when you sand side to side but sand the fins up and down as much as you can first and then sand side to side applying pressure but being careful not to bend the fins.
You keep sanding it down until you start seeing less and less of the pits. "Pits" are the dark "stains" on the intercooler. The 100 and 150 size grits will remove most of the actual pits. It will get harder to get rid of them with the higher size grit size you go, but the higher size grit size will make the material nice and smooth when it comes time to polish it. Once you have completed this you move up the grit sizes and do the same thing for each grit size. Do the same thing with the 150 grit size and then 320 size grit.
When you get down to the 400 size grit your going to have to start wetting the sand paper. So what you do is when you are done sanding with the 400 grit size being dry, what you do is wet the sand paper and continue along. It might seem like you are going nowhere but trust us you are, you are making the surface nice and smooth. Proceed on doing this with the 600, 800, and 1500 grit sizes. Sand it dry first, then sand it wet.
We could have done more grit sizes to make things a lot nicer, but if you tackle down this job you will know why we skipped some. It doesnt take 5 minutes, its a long job to do. But in the end it should be well worth it if done right. As you keep going up with the size sand paper you will see the intercooler beging to BLING. Once you finish sanding you want to apply the Mother Mags Polish. This is our choice, you can use other, just make sure it wont damage the material of your intercooler.
The way to apply is pretty simple to do the endtank, but kind of hard to do the fins which we didnt reall do. To do the endtanks put some on a cloth towel and apply it to the surface, let it sit for abomut 30 sec - 1 min and remove with a clean towel. You should see it nice and shiny. The fins we attempted but the polish kept gettin stuck in between the fins so we left it at that. You might be able to take a Q-Tip and apply it in between the fins, but that will take you a while. I will try this at a later time and see how it goes.
Like we said its not an easy job, but well worth the results if done properly. Here are some before and after pictures....
Wet/Dry sand paper 100 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit, 600 grit, 1500 grit.
Mother Mags Billet polishing
Water
Ok first off...if you want to do this the results are well worth it, but you gotta make sure that you have a lot of time and patience. This is not something that will take twenty minutes and think that your FMIC will be blinging...So just follow these steps and you should have a pretty good result....I would also like to thank my good friend Mike, Boostmaster123, who helped and taught me how to do this. Mad props to Mike, thanks bro.
First off I dont know if every FMIC is "polishable" this was done to a Hahn Race Craft FMIC and here it goes its pretty simple...You might want to get a sand block to use for it will put A LOT less stress on your fingers and make the sanding nice and even. I didnt have one which made my results not as best as could be and put the hurting on my fingers...
First you want to start off with low grit wet/drysand paper...we started out with 320 grit but soon realized we were joking ourselfs and then went to low grit sand paper. 100 grit to be exact. So we then "went to town" with the 100 grit paper and then it got a lot of the pits out of the FMIC REAL quick. 100 grit is a good size to work the end tanks because you can apply hard pressure without causing damage to anything. It will get the pits out fast but will leave it with a rough surface with the 100 grit. You have to rub hard on the endtanks but be careful when you are doin the fins. They might bend and you dont want that.
We found it to be easier to sand up and down on the fins which dont seem to bend the fins. It doesnt get the pits out as good as when you sand side to side but sand the fins up and down as much as you can first and then sand side to side applying pressure but being careful not to bend the fins.
You keep sanding it down until you start seeing less and less of the pits. "Pits" are the dark "stains" on the intercooler. The 100 and 150 size grits will remove most of the actual pits. It will get harder to get rid of them with the higher size grit size you go, but the higher size grit size will make the material nice and smooth when it comes time to polish it. Once you have completed this you move up the grit sizes and do the same thing for each grit size. Do the same thing with the 150 grit size and then 320 size grit.
When you get down to the 400 size grit your going to have to start wetting the sand paper. So what you do is when you are done sanding with the 400 grit size being dry, what you do is wet the sand paper and continue along. It might seem like you are going nowhere but trust us you are, you are making the surface nice and smooth. Proceed on doing this with the 600, 800, and 1500 grit sizes. Sand it dry first, then sand it wet.
We could have done more grit sizes to make things a lot nicer, but if you tackle down this job you will know why we skipped some. It doesnt take 5 minutes, its a long job to do. But in the end it should be well worth it if done right. As you keep going up with the size sand paper you will see the intercooler beging to BLING. Once you finish sanding you want to apply the Mother Mags Polish. This is our choice, you can use other, just make sure it wont damage the material of your intercooler.
The way to apply is pretty simple to do the endtank, but kind of hard to do the fins which we didnt reall do. To do the endtanks put some on a cloth towel and apply it to the surface, let it sit for abomut 30 sec - 1 min and remove with a clean towel. You should see it nice and shiny. The fins we attempted but the polish kept gettin stuck in between the fins so we left it at that. You might be able to take a Q-Tip and apply it in between the fins, but that will take you a while. I will try this at a later time and see how it goes.
Like we said its not an easy job, but well worth the results if done properly. Here are some before and after pictures....
