well i took a spare intake off my loft today. i dont know why but since we have so much cylinder head porting equipment in the shop it didnt cost me anything so i went and disassembled the intake and ported the upper plenum. i then used aluminum stones and 80 grit cartridge rolls and sanded the casting smooth on the whole intake, i then went back and smoothed it more with my D.A and then used some red scotch brite on a special arbour for the die grinder and smoothed it like glass. i am having DPS Powdercoating do then intake for me and a set of valve covers, but i dont know if i am going to go chrome, or i may do a silver vein, or copper vein, if anyone has seen silver or copper vein powdercoat its really kick ass looking. i am undecided. i know porting the upper plenum probably didnt do a thing for it, but what the hell, it looks cool!!

http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss63/jamie95mark/intake4.jpg
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss63/jamie95mark/intake3.jpg
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss63/jamie95mark/intake2.jpg
http://i562.photobucket.com/albums/ss63/jamie95mark/intake1.jpg

this is silver vein powdercoat
http://forum.caswellplating.com/photopost/watermark.php?file=288&size=1
and this is copper vein
http://www.fullcompass.com/common/products/original/36752.jpg
and chrome obviously we know what that looks like!

Jamie, that is nice work. I'm interested to see how the finished product comes out.

You want my opinion? I know both the silver/copper vein & I like them both. Now, if it was my car?

copper vein all the way!!! However if you want it to match the rest of your car then go with chrome.

Good luck in your choice Jamie!

yep, chrome...

Those are nice colors. The silver vein would be more subtle than the copper. I think either of those would be a good choice.

Copper!

Those finishes almost look like Hammertone.

Silver... I think the copper would look out of place on a mark... just my .02 tho.

I'd go chrome. I love the copper vein but it just wouldn't flow with the rest of the car. Lincoln's are all about being flashy...chrome will be perfect with your combo.

well my old valve covers and intake i did chrome, i did them myself and they came out nice but i didnt realize the chrome i used from eastwood was a 2 stage, i didnt know that so i only did the chrome and no clear topcoat so it dulled and looked like aluminum after 6 months. now they have new chromes which are high heat and single stage, i think i will do chrome. this was my 98, but i didnt sand the intake smooth like i did to this one.
i did a timing cover too

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c106/jamies97lsc/valvecovers025.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c106/jamies97lsc/valvecovers019.jpg
i know i took the cobra stickers off i was just trying them on!

the newer eastwood single stage chrome is touchy as well. I did it on my cop covers and went to clean them and they turned blue. I called eastwood and they advise to clear coat it. The second time I tried it the clear dulled the chrome to an aluminum look. The third time I ended up just polishing them.

i have the silver vein on my atv frame and i think it looks kick ass

yeah we use silver and copper vein on our railings at work. i work for an ornamental iron and aluminum shop and we make really fancy gates, railings, stair cases crap like that and we have alot of them powder coated copper and silver vein and it just looks awesome. copper wouldnt look roght on the engine though, copper vein is hard to notice in a dark environment, which under the hood is just that, silver vein would stand out, but i dont know how that would look on top of an engine. i'm gonna stop by DPS this week and look at all of Art's samples again and see if i can choose some abstract color and go wild!! when i had my 98 i thought about doing the valve covers and intake like a plum crazy purple annodized, then polishing the cop covers and leaving them polished aluminum. i really dont know what to do, i wish i had the money to get the valve covers and intake dipped in nickle.

Hmmm....I like the copper,but I think the copper would look better on a car done like mine.
For yours,I think the silver vein would look sick! Being that you have a black car and all,I think it would flow better with the color matching.

I am officially calling the powdercoating company monday to see if they have the copper vein and see how much it will be for my intake and valve covers!

Question....will a 95 timing cover fit the 98? n00b question,I know....sorry.

yes the timing covers were the same 93-98