Topic: Polishing Aluminum

[motogotro]

Anybody got any tips on how to restore the shine to parts like the front fork lowers and the engine side cases?

Thanks,

Mike

[heffay]

polishing compound and ELBOW GREASE... 

[cben750f0]

buy a 200w(?) bench grinder... rough /interentiate/ and polishing wheel. and some cutting and polishing compounds... tkakes half the time... and you can never get the same resaults by hand.... i love my grinder....peace

[seaweb11]

I was taught by an old guy this winter and did my engine and forks durring my 1st complete restoration.
It's just elbow grease. Start wet sanding with 400 grit, do complete piece. Next do it again with 400 grit. Then, yes, wet sand again with 600 grit. It takes Hours........... When finished with the 600, I went and used "Mothers Polish" and polished by hand with good results. I tried an electric buffer after that and it worked much better. Looks like a mirror now.  It's pretty cool,  but you don't see the results till the very end of proccess.  Be patient and you will get great results.

[CHUNG]

send them to me or buy me a ticket and I'll reveal the "secrets"  

[screwtheman]

I bought the Eastwood polishing kit and a bench grinder from Sears. I took some threaded rod to extend the grinder shaft out for clearance. You start out with sanding with 220 grit. Then you move to 320. Then to 400. Then maybe to 600. You know it's time to change grits when you've removed the previous grits scratches (best seen under a bright light). You can wet sand, but I prefer dry sanding. Don't rush the sanding because it directly affects your final outcome. The fun part is the buffing. There's definitely some technique to putting parts to the wheel. It's best demonstrated in the Art of Buffing Video that comes with the Eastwood kit. But basically, you hold the part low and never tilt it up against the running direction of the buff. Watch your edges! You run a sprial buff with Tripoli to buff out the 400 grit scratches. As I understand it, you're literally heating up the metal enough to melt and fill the scratches. The final buff is with a loose buff and white rouge. The final buff will not remove scratches. It is a polishing step to bring out color. Then I usually make a pass with Nevr-Dull and then wax with Meguiars carnuba wax. If you want to clear coat or seal it, I wouldn't do the wax step. Use either Zoops (also available from Eastwood) or clear coat. Hope that helps and gives you some ideas! 

[Dennis]

Hey "screwtheman",
someone is giving you a line. No way do you get aluminum hot nough to melt when polishing.
Anyway a good procedure, I'm sure that you got excellent results that way, but the theory is a little "out there"!

[Mark M]

Dennis, sorry but I beg to differ on that.
Your not melting the whole piece just a micron or two directly under the buffer wheel. Just try touching it as you pull it off the wheel to see just how hot it gets.

[Ibsen]

To restore them, wet sanding, starting with a grit 400 paper and switch to finer grit till I end up with 1000 paper.
And for polishing I use a buffer and Solvols Autosol. And to preserve the finish, a liquid hard wax. Sonax works well.

[screwtheman]

There's a good intro here: http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htm It's pretty gratifying work!