Posted By: 1970RT
What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/20/09 01:35 AM
I need to polish some aluminum valve covers and an air cleaner. What product works best for polishing aluminum? Also, has anyone used one of those poishing balls you attach to your drill? Are they worth buying? I also need to polish a set of stainless dog dish caps. What works best on stainless?
Posted By: dfsmopars
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/20/09 02:34 AM
I have polished a lot of aluminum like exterior trim, valve covers, water pumps, A/C components, wheels and more. I have found a lot of good products work but the common thread is hard work and patience especially if the pieces are oxidized badly. If you don't have anything to work with now I suggest calling Eastwood and letting them suggest some stuff. I have attached the engine compartment of my Firehawk. The bright work was done with products from Eastwood.
Posted By: 41hemi
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/20/09 03:14 AM
The power balls work good for some things, I use buffs in different shapes in my die grinder, you can get them at harbor freight or better ones at Eastwood. Medium cut paint cleaner works really fast, I use Blue magic metal polish or Mothers. for finish.
Posted By: 70Cuda383
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/20/09 10:02 AM
buffing wheels are ok if there's no scratches. I polished up a home made aluminum shroud I made for my dad's van. started with some nasty scrap yard, heavilly oxidized aluminum, and started sanding with 180 grit sand paper. kept stepping up in grit...220, 400, 600, 800, etc. all the way to 2500 grit paper, then hit it with a buffing wheel and it came out looking like a mirror.
like a good paint job, it's all in the prep work before the buffer ever gets turned on
Posted By: Stanton
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/21/09 03:13 AM
"sandpaper" and "polish" just don't belong in the same paragraph !!!
You want to polish you use buffing wheels - start with coarse compounds and work to finer.
I've found that the automotive compounds work well and are less work than using the hard blocks. A little water will allow you to buff longer before re-applying compound. Use the red compound to start and the white "clearcoat" compounds next. Finish up with something like the "powerball" and Wenol. a final coat of wax will help minimize oxidation.
BTW - you'll want to use something like a diegrinder to spin the buffing wheels - a drill just doesn't have the speed. You can do the final "powerball" with a drill.
Posted By: Wedgeman
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/21/09 05:48 AM
Polishing depends on how good or bad is the piece you start with......
For an ordinary piece of aluminum go with sanding up to 2500 grid as mentioned by 70cuda383 (the key here is straight sanding, not orbital), otherwise, if you are working with an already smooth piece and there are no visible scratches...polishing compouds might do the tricks... but for a true high gloss polish, a buffing wheel with sticks of compuds by colors, like those sold by eastwood are the way to go. It is a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long job,but quality takes time..
Dan
Posted By: Valiant_Showoff
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/21/09 05:05 PM
As a final polish, I use Wenol with my Powerball for my aluminum wheels and trailer trim. Won't correct a severely scarred piece, but I like how Wenol handles the final shine. Much faster than Mother's aluminum polish.
Posted By: DirectSubjection
Re: What works best for polishing aluminum parts? - 01/22/09 06:55 AM
Kevin inspired me to do my rough-cast M1 intake. 45 hours later I was done.
