Leaderboard

I just want to say, as a guy who does a fair amount of data visualization as part of my job, that I hope someone told the guy at Hagerty that putting prices in an animated GIF that loops immediately is stupid.

Polyester primed

According to my logbook, I installed those Mullholland shocks in August 1980 (odometer then was 118,717 miles). So they are only 38 years old with only 70,000 miles on them. Gee, are you sure you can't just rebuild them? <grin>

The polished valve Matt posted is the test mule, but I have since completed one full set of intake valves. I started at the drill press, spinning each valve to check for head run-out and wobble. If they checked out (and all of them did) I weighed and measured each one. Eventually, we had two sets of valves fairly consistent in length and weight. We also have a third set but the measurements are not so consistent. The polishing work started on the combustion faces, spinning the valves at about 650 RPM while using a Dremel tool and grinding stone against the direction of rotation, to smooth away the casting marks. Working with a gentle, steady pressure it only took a few minutes to clear the marks from the valve. I followed the grinding with 80-grit abrasive cloth until the grinding stone marks were no longer visible; then moved to successively finer wet-dry papers until I had the finish I wanted. A small bit of WD-40 on the paper helps, and it didn't take more than fifteen-minutes to polish each valve's combustion face. When I was done with one set of six valves I moved to their transition at the valve stem base. Measuring often until the transition blended smoothly, I used a very fine file to carefully turn down the neck of the transition. After this I polished the head and stem transition the same way I did the combustion face, but stopped at the 600-grit finish. Next, I'll re-face each valve with the factory angles, and dress their tips. Admittedly, the mule is way over the top, and 600 grit paper will achieve a very nice finish. Next I plan to experiment to get a swirl pattern on the port-side of the valves, but the combustion chambers are polished so I want the combustion face of the valves polished, as well. More photos to follow, but I'll let Matt do that.