Polishing turbo and supercharger housing?

[UrineMachine]

I have this supercharger on my car and I want to polish it. It's basically a turbo housing with a pulley. I wouldn't polish the wheel (impeller) just the exterior housing.

Can someone guide me as to where to start? Do I need to sand the whole thing? I have a dremel tool and a air compressor, but I don't have too many sanding or polishing tools for either tool. Guidance? Thanks





Thanks in advance.

Jon

[jrow]

Jon,

The first thing I would do is to disassemble anything that you are not going to polish! Grit in the bushing is not something you want to deal with. The next thing I would let you know is that is a cast part and not the easiest thing to polish. In all likelihood you are going to run into pits from the casting process.
Next get some greaseless compound from Caswells and go at it with the coarsest grit that will cut the surface and leave it smooth. I'd start with about 80 grit and work up to 320. Use a 4" sewn buff with an electric drill motor for the greaseless. Work across the turbine at different angles when you change grits. You can use your Dremel with the smaller buffs to get into the tight areas. Be WARNED that the greaseless doesn't stick to the smaller felt buff that well so I would load about 6 of those. You can also stack some 1" sewn buffs and use them with greaseless also. The next step will be to wet sand if needed.
You can clean your turbine after each step with brake cleaner or acetone.
Let us know how you make out with these steps and will go from there.

John

[mpierich]

Originally Posted by UrineMachine

I have this supercharger on my car and I want to polish it. It's basically a turbo housing with a pulley. I wouldn't polish the wheel (impeller) just the exterior housing.

Can someone guide me as to where to start? Do I need to sand the whole thing? I have a dremel tool and a air compressor, but I don't have too many sanding or polishing tools for either tool. Guidance? Thanks

Thanks in advance.

Jon

JROW is correct that you should take it apart as much as possible. If you can't, you need to seal it tight with duct tape, permatex, or whatever you need to do, but you're still taking a risk of getting grit in there.

An alternative to the greaseless compound mentioned would be cartridge rolls. These will take some getting used to and some skill development, but I prefer them when possible because waiting for the greaseless to dry is a royal pain. If you do use cartridge rolls, get a variety of shapes and sizes. Get 120, 220, and 320 grits. You'll need a special 1/4" diameter mandrel, which will fit into a $20 air die grinder. Using grinder's grease with the rolls will make them cut smoother and last longer. If they leave scallops, use the greaseless compund afterwards to smooth those areas. All the above is available from Caswell.

After that it's on the emery compund with felt bobs and whatever sizes of cotton wheels you need to get into the small areas. Treated wheels will last longer and cut faster. Your coloring with white compound should be done with loose cotton wheels and felt bobs.

Feel free to ask more questions. By the way, if you could use smaller pictures next time it would be good - some of us are still on old-fashioned dialup.