Aluminum Etching?

Discussion in 'Exterior/Body' started by Justin Danger, Jan 29, 2017.

  1. Justin Danger

    Justin Danger Toyotaholic

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    Has anyone ever tired etching in aluminum here? My intake plenum doesn't have the "Turbo EFI" label on it, but has a nice clean space for something, I was thinking of maybe acid etching something onto it, just to give it more of a custom feel. I'm open to any tips or tricks.

    it's an old pic, but you can see that blank rectangle just asking for something

    Engine 10-15 sm.jpg
     
  2. neonjay

    neonjay Member

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    Never tried but I've seen some tutorial vids on Youtube that can help you.
     
  3. Perkolator

    Perkolator Toyotaholic

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    I've etched zinc and aluminum before, for fine art printing. Since you use acid, I dunno if I'd risk it with the part installed. What about just painting it? You could stencil pretty much anything on there.
     
  4. Justin Danger

    Justin Danger Toyotaholic

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    I'm not a real fan of the painted parts look, I'm going through all of the parts I previously painted and polishing them back to metal.

    What acids did you use for aluminum? did you use a standard resist? I've acid etched for printing before but it was for steel and copper, a bath of hydrosomething acid.

    I plan on taking the upper and intake plenums off to polish them at least a little inside and out. Also going to go back to standard paper gaskets, because things don't line up so well with the extra thickness of LCE's teflon or whatever gaskets I've been using.
     
  5. Perkolator

    Perkolator Toyotaholic

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    i honestly don't know the acid used. print lab had it, i merely had aluminum plate and was like hey how can i use this material. i want to say the resist was 'rosin' and it had to be melted onto the plate.
     
  6. Justin Danger

    Justin Danger Toyotaholic

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    Awesome! thanks for the info Perkolator, I will look into this more. Got any pics of anything you printed?
     

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