Extreme Glass Bead Blasting, Introduction

This top picture would be the first manifold I had extremely glass beaded - a 1969 Non Egr Edelbrock Torker. This picture taken the day the manifold was first bolted on the 360 in the line of duty! Now street testing the extreme finish for its ability to stay clean and stain free on a daily driverand not just any daily driver, on a true performance daily driver. Yes kids I drove a HURST SC/Rambler to and from work for over 15 years.

EYE CANDY - YES, Extreme Glass Beading was developed especially for the perfectionist by a perfectionist. This Multi-Stage Media Blasting Process - I call Extreme Glass Beading, was a long drawn out experiment over years of hot rodding and my obsession with detail. I am a true speed demon, muscle car enthusiast at heart and much to my surprise, what would come to be dearest to my heart is a HURST SC/Rambler I owned and drove daily in the line of duty for 19 years. I was heavy into restoring AMC cars and I strived for the ultimate in detail ...well ok that my budget would allow. But getting back to the important stuff, my favorite part about cars was detailing the engine compartment. I researched the industry attending many car shows, as I loved  to soak up the great ideas from the old hot rodders. These guys were like GOD's to me because they made their own parts and their cars were spectacular.

BUT, I noticed something odd and somewhat surprising to me, it is the not so pretty intake manifolds that I see on some street cars. Unless they were polished or powdercoated or painted to match the block they were just not apealing or worthy of the vehicle they were on. I am talking about the ones that were left bare cast Aluminum, unless they were brand new, lets face it kids they were just plain ugly.

I was in need of restoration on a Edelbrock Torker and a Group 19 X-Ram manifold for my SC/Rambler, so I started to check into refinishing aluminum services, I say ...I was not pleased with I had found. I continued seeking some better restoration ideas and I was determined to do a better job, getting late in the season I was unsucsessful and had to settle for my local automotive shop with a 3/8's national glass beading cabinet. The guy did a great job and it was perfectly clean and uniform in color, very bright even, but ...it just lacked what I had in mind. Then... one day I got a great deal on an old home made but glass-beading cabinet that had lots of potental. Why not I thought, it was a big investment for only 2 manifolds but I was in this extreme detail mode on the car and I had to have it!WOW now my obsession with perfection was really kicked into hi gear.

Over the next few years I found my self experimenting with the media and every manifold I could find. Using multiple types of media during multiple blasting stages to remove all casting flaws and pitting. Once the surface was perfect, then the final profiling stage was just a matter of personal choice and it is completed. The results are spectacular eye candy.

There are even noticeable performance gains with this process. Some of us will go to extremes just to gain a fraction of a second on an ET? Well this process could open up some interesting discussion there if anyone is interested, feel free to contact me. I have been accused of extreme glass-beading, but I am perfection oriented and if I can achieve better performance on top of all the other benefits, you can be sure I'll give it my full attention and I have spent many weekends researching these possibilities.

There are ideal surface profiles for every application, but the most common reason we refinish our performance parts is usually a cosmetic one. If your looking for detail above and beyond your expectations, Extreme Glass Beading is the way to go!