Topic: My Results Polishing Engine Parts

[campbmic]

A few days ago I posted on here asking for advice on polishing engine parts, since I have zero knowledge of polishing. A bunch of people responded offering suggestions, which I greatly appreciate, and someone mentioned the "Caswell Guide". It basically explains how polishing works and how to do it for someone with zero experience. https://www.caswellplating.com/buffman.htm

I bought an aluminum polishing kit from Harbor Freight for $19.99 and Im getting some awesome results. I just wanted to share some pictures in case anyone else wants the info. This is my first time polishing anything and I'm in no way experienced, but this is the process I've been doing and the result. All you need is the kit and a drill to do it!

1. Here's the polishing kit from Harbor Freight for $19.99 ($14.99 if you're a member)


2. This is my sprocket cover I'm starting with


3. I learned polishing is a lot like painting, any scratch in the material will be REALLY visible at the end. This cover had a ton of deep scratches on it from a wire wheel so I started at 100 grit and went up to 1200. I had already spent a few hours polishing other things at this point so I didn't get all of the scratches out on the cover. If you sand all the scratches out the end result is like chrome!


4. The kit has black, brown, and white polishing compounds and a bunch of different sized buffing wheels. Also, in my last post a member mentioned that you switch buffing wheels when you switch compounds. Black is the most aggressive, so I started by rubbing it on the part and buffing with one of the wheels. Black can also remove some light scratches from the metal.


5. Brown is the less aggressive than black.


6. White is the final


7. Here's the result! Like I mentioned, I didn't do a very good sanding job on this one.


I'm really blown away by the results from this kit, the parts come out looking almost brand new. I posted a few months ago about my bike getting burned in a house fire.


I used a wire wheel to get most of the melted plastic and stuff off the engine. Unfortunately now I have a bunch of deep scratches on the engine. So far I've been using sandpaper but with all the curves and corners Im having to do a lot of it by hand. Does anyone know of something similar to these polishing wheels (but more aggressive) that I could use?

Thanks for any advice! I've gotten so much help from this forum in the past, so I hope someone else can use this info!

[whizzer]

I have that polishing kit too but never used it.  Motivating to see how well it worked for you.  Good pics.  Thanks for sharing.

[pjlogue]

The engine cover is looking good.  You have a LOT of work in head of you on that bike and a lot of parts to buy to get it running again.  Good luck with it. 

-P.

[Ace Blackwell]

Awesome job on the cover.  This is good info for my future goals. Just trying to get mine running and mobile. Once there, this polishing info will come in handy

Ace

[rupaulpierce]

Awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scottly]

Instead of using wire wheels, which you've already found can scratch badly, try the plastic "wire" wheels.

[jlh3rd]

I'm assuming by scratches on the engine you mean including the fins and their surfaces. I haven't seen you mention a dremel  tool. ......It has sanding attachments, and polishing cones, which could be used with the harbor freight compounds. That may be a faster way to handle those.

[1976cb750f836]

A cotton wheel on a bench grinder, really speeds things up, and a lot easier.
I use 2, 1 ea side, brown rouge to start(usually no sanding),then green,or white to finish.
The cover u showed would take bout 15-20 min total. Polishing wheels for bench grinder bout 8$ ea. 

[campbmic]

A cotton wheel on a bench grinder, really speeds things up, and a lot easier.
I use 2, 1 ea side, brown rouge to start(usually no sanding),then green,or white to finish.
The cover u showed would take bout 15-20 min total. Polishing wheels for bench grinder bout 8$ ea.

I unfortunately dont have a bench grinder. I do have two handles on my drill though, and set it up kind of like a bench grinder.

I mentioned Im looking for something to speed up the sanding process. Something like polishing wheels that goes from 100 grit to 1000 grit.  Are you saying the brown rouge, green, or white cotton wheels can do this? Or are you saying to use those instead of the kit I have from harbor freight.

[przjohn]

The Harbor Freight kit you have compared to bench wheels is like comparing painting a car fender with an Artist’s Brush and a spray gun. Polishing with wheels is the way to go and a set up made from a bench grinder is not that expensive. As far as sanding there is no easy way out that I have found. My method if there are no deep scratches is to use a fine glass bead and then sand to 1500 wet by hand. Then use a 8” X 3/8” sewn cotton wheel with a Tripoli polish, that is the Brown polish. This will give a very nice shine but it then gets thouroghly cleaned so as not to contaminate the next wheel which ia a Pink Jewler’s Rouge on a 8”X1” sewn cotton wheel. This will give you a brilliant Chrome like shine. Alot of polishing is trial and error as far as how much polish to use, etc. A good shine will come with experience. A good source for polishing info and professional grade products is swmetal.com, a  better source for polishing than Caswell IMO.

[przjohn]

Before and after using the above method and swmetals products and info.

[rotortiller]

The H1 parts look really good.

[RAFster122s]

Apply your polishing compounds to your spinning wheels and once you have loaded up the wheel you buff the part until you need to apply more compound.  The nylon abrasive brushes may be able to help you with the scratches but I am afraid you are going to need to do most of the block sanding by hand to remove deep scratches as anything flexible is going to round the edges and not level the surface. Even with curved surfaces those you can reach with a palm sander might be useful to start. You just have to move the sander in a rolling action to keep the part from developing flat spots.