Pics of what your working with would help. Id vote powder coating but thats me. With chrome or polish youll be constantly wiping it down to keep it looking good. And for color im no expert but if found having most of the parts one subdued color with a only a couple things a bright or polished look will help those 'pop'.

Julian.

 

^^ agreed, my vote is for powder coating. Polished/chrome parts are a lot more maintenance.

 

Take it from someone that made the mistake of going polish first. Then it dulled and I was spending so much time polishing. I then went chrome and it cut my time in half if not more. An easy wipe with windex and your done. I have powder coating as well under the hood and it is very easy to maintain. In addition depending who does it they should have a variety of different coatings. It all comes down to what you want ultimately.

Pricing wise high to low will be as such= chrome, polish and powder coating. Powder coating pricing will differ if you go with differnent finishes and clears etc. There are lots of choices almost like painting a car...gl

 

Chrome it. Maintenance is a lot easier compared to polished.

 

Ive polished everything under the hood of my car and even though its not finished yet its already a pita to keep clean.

 

Check out done up engines on google images and find a scheme you like. Personally im sick of anything chrome/polished. I did a mix of brushed nickel, stainless, matte cf, black textured powdercoat, braided kevlar lines, and purple titanium bolts. Its modern with a touch of industrial look, and very oem-clean.

 

Pics?

 

anything but polish as stated its full time job to up keep

 

Iggywoowoo> Sure thing. Here's a few, pardon the dust and rain spots. There are a few details that remain but I ran out of time this year. (Couple blue pieces to switch out for black, green tape is removed, gotta do something with the PS reservoir...) The turbo has since colour-shifted a bluer tone after I ran it and burned off the factory coating, but I'll just put a turbo blanket on it anyhow, and I may have the IC pipes redone with stainless steel to match the DP and valve covers...

I guess the point I was getting at was to think of the engine bay as a whole picture and not just the colour of a few choice parts. This way you'll end up with something that looks a lot more complete, coordinated and well thought-out. There are lots of good examples out there in the Honda crowds because they care more about that stuff than most of us do. I actually drew rough pictures of mine and coloured stuff in to see which parts would become which finish/colour so that I would have symmetry in the design and a bird's eye view of where I would have my colours contrast, etc.

 

Iggywoowoo> Sure thing. Here's a few, pardon the dust and rain spots. There are a few details that remain but I ran out of time this year. (Couple blue pieces to switch out for black, green tape is removed, gotta do something with the PS reservoir...) The turbo has since colour-shifted a bluer tone after I ran it and burned off the factory coating, but I'll just put a turbo blanket on it anyhow, and I may have the IC pipes redone with stainless steel to match the DP and valve covers...


I guess the point I was getting at was to think of the engine bay as a whole picture and not just the colour of a few choice parts. This way you'll end up with something that looks a lot more complete, coordinated and well thought-out. There are lots of good examples out there in the Honda crowds because they care more about that stuff than most of us do. I actually drew rough pictures of mine and coloured stuff in to see which parts would become which finish/colour so that I would have symmetry in the design and a bird's eye view of where I would have my colours contrast, etc.

Hi,

Juust wondering, did you powder coat your intake maniffold?

I hate my polished stuff.. Do you know if you can powder coat aluminium? Or should I anodize these? (PHR diffuser and phr intake pipe)

 

I had everything chromed when I did it the first time. Some of the horrible chrome work from RB Chrome started to peel off in the first few months. The parts that peeled got stripped and polished so now I have a mix of chrome and polished. I'm very happy with the look but when I get the ambition all of the polished parts will be chrome again since it was a much nicer shine and is way easier to keep up with.
If you do go chrome make sure it's triple plate and not a hack job like I got!

 

If you do go chrome make sure it's triple plate and not a hack job like I got!

if you go triple plate how long will it last before it starts to peel ?

 

Most of my stuff is polished. Doesn't really bother me at all to keep up with it. Chrome you can just wipe it off walla, but polishing WILL take some work to maintain.

 

24 karat gold plate it

 

i still like the polish/chrome look if done right .. everything in this car i built is polished ... going forward i think i would do chrome valve covers . chrome turbo housing , chrome turbo piping ,black powdercoat intake tube and intake manifold

 

You know what I really want to see someone do though? Copper plate and black powder coated theme. The problem is you need an exterior paint colour to match, like black. In fact that's the only colour I think would look good with it. You'd need a little up-keep on the copper but it would look sick!

 

I've powder coated engine parts, I'm in FL and eventually heat gets to it and some starts to flake. Also adding/removing parts tends to chip them. My friend has chromed parts and he's had easier time on his setup and cleanup.

 

bling bling

 

Based on the chrome guys that I have spoken to it should have no issue. This is what I have been told, I am no expert on chrome. All I know is the work that RB Chroming did for us peeled within a year or less then 2k miles. I'm sure the prep work was also a contributing factor there. I think the best thing to do is speak to someone that specializes in Chroming motorcycle engines. All the Harleys and Customes have chrome motors and they seem to hold up well even on air cooled motors that see the elements more often then our motors.

 

Not finished yet but this is my latest version. The intercooler piping will be black chrome.

Last years look!

What she looked liked when I brought her home, pre-chrome!

 

there is chrome powdercoat too if you want to go that route. Will be MUCH cheaper(and easier and faster) then actually chroming parts

 

^^^^ Chrome powder coat is nice if it's the look your after but not a replacement for chrome.

 

chrome is super baller compared to polished. around where i live polished metal gets destroyed if you leave it outside. it turns all oxidized with some white powder speckle over time so its annoying.

i would recommend chroming if you want that look (which is mega ultra orgasmic looking when all clean/wire tucked)

alternately i would recommend wrinkle coat paint. looks sick on engines.

here is a prime example of wrinkle finish

lambo and ferrari come with wrinkle coat valve covers as OEM (for example)

 

i powdercoated my valve covers wrinkle red, and intake mani/TB wrinkle black. compressor housing i'll also be doing wrinkle black in the near future. i powdercoat and its soo much easier to maintain than polished, and much cheper than chrome. and you can do just about any finish/color you can think of with powder

 

you can powdercoat anything conductive, and that can take 350*F- wich is about everything metal. certain coaying systems even have a way to produce a static field and even powercoat non-conductive items like plastic, glass, wood, etc. the coating system i use has a multi-coat nozzle like that and it works fantastic for non-conductives

 

Ok I see! And sorry for my ignorance, what would be the difference between powdercoated and anodizing pieces of polished aluminium?

 

well powder coating is just that, a coating. some are epoxy, some acrylic- basically a plastic based powder thats electrostatically sprayed onto part. then baked- powder then melts when cured. Anodizing seals the aluminum's surface using acid and current flow to prevent corrosion and increase surface hardness- the color is basically staining the aluminum itself which gives that sheen glimmer of colored metal

 

Don't waste your time with polishing. It's a PITA to upkeep. It will look great until someone decides to touch something polished and then it's scratched forever. Chrome you can wipe down with Windex and it looks just like it did the first day it was chromed.

SpaceCoast Plating in FL has done all of the chrome on my car. Not the cheapest, or the quickest, but their quality is top notch.

 

^ Space Coast Plating did a lot of my chrome too. The only reason why there are still some polished parts on my car is because I couldn't wait any longer (as you said, they are slow, but the quality is top notch).

When I started building my car I wanted a carbon fiber and chrome color scheme. It turned out nice but my next engine bay will be mostly black and carbon fiber... and maybe sneak in a little purple (BOVs).