Polishing Aluminum

[exeric]

I just use a cheap old bench grinder too. I read something once that made a lot of sense regarding metal buffing; LET THE WHEEL AND COMPOUND DO THE WORK. Pushing hard on the wheel won't get you faster results. Lastly, don't wear gloves. I learned that one the hard way. Oh yeah, if you have an aluminum part that is corroded or scratched, wet sand it with increasing grades of wet/dry sandpaper. That will save you a lot of buffing time.

[Ohio-Rider]

I’m petty lucky that most all the parts I need to do don’t look to bad right now from 15 feet away. I just need to get them looking 10 feet better and I’ll be happy. Oh yeah! I ordered some of that fancy California deoxidizer today. I have high hopes for how it will work for me. We'll see.

[rwm]

why can't you buff by hand i would think the buffer wheels will leave ripples or an uneven finish i never get them dam swirl marks out of my car until i hand polish.

[Ohio-Rider]

Your right Rob. Hand polishing would be more controllable and I will undoubtedly begin my testing by hand before getting too crazy with a buffer. I have always liked the “sneak up on it” approach.

[Neil74]

If your parts aren't too bad, you can probably do a nice job with Never-Dull. Work small areas by hand and wipe the black off frequently. Takes a while but a very good upper body workout. The never-dull seems to last a while and easy to reapply.

[c.o.]

Eastwood has a great selection of specialized wheels and abrasives for polishing. I do all of my polishing; even pre-plating polishing, as I don't trust the polishers at plating shops. They are always too heavy handed and will polish away all of the details of a part. Polishing can be tedious but there is a lot of satisfaction in getting great results from your own efforts.

Eastwood does have an excellent selection of products in their roster. Exeric your also not kidding when it comes to how carried away a plater can get. I recall seeing an '11 H-D project on e-bay a few months back. The engine was all bright and shiney but the cases had been polished so aggressively that most of the lettering was gone! I haven't polished much of anything for quite a few years but when I did, I used a product called Auto-Sol. It was a grey type paste and I found pretty good results with it. I was truly amazed what I could do when I finally got my hands on a buffing wheel!

[Chris Haynes]

Mothers aluminum polish and some elbow grease will make your aluminum shine without removing any metal like a polishing wheel and abrasive will.

[exeric]

Mothers aluminum polish and some elbow grease will make your aluminum shine without removing any metal like a polishing wheel and abrasive will.

I agree with that. Mother's is my favorite hand aluminum polish.

[Ohio-Rider]

Great info for me here about buffing. Pretty much sums it up.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htm

[indianut]

When you are done you will realize that, even though you and I and most of us like to do our own stuff, 52 an hour for metal polishing is Dirt Cheap for the amount of Labor involved. Most of my polishing experience comes from Polishing Injection Molds. Usually that involves taking Tool Steel from the grinder or EDM and making it look like Chrome!

[rousseau]

Steve

I'm also working on a vintage Triumph. Mine is a 68 T100C. I have polished the side cases ,rocker boxes and intake. I will try to load a couple of pics. A shot of the front fender which I also polished (Stainless Steel). I wouldn't call this a "mirrow" finish ,but you can see my reflection.

[rousseau]

Here is a before and after of the rocker boxes

[Ohio-Rider]

Those rockers look great. Did you do them by hand?

[D.A.Bagin]

getting carried away

When i was a neophyte at age 17 and building my chopper in 1970-71, I just had to have polished cases on my 58 pan. They polished off half my vin. The 5 is barely visable. Bellys are pretty much gone. Thankfully, I still have the bike sans polished cases and back to stock with faint but original vin. When I'm gone it will be my kids problem. LOL Drew #3166

[kval]

When i was a neophyte at age 17 and building my chopper in 1970-71, I just had to have polished cases on my 58 pan. They polished off half my vin. The 5 is barely visable. Bellys are pretty much gone. Thankfully, I still have the bike sans polished cases and back to stock with faint but original vin. When I'm gone it will be my kids problem. LOL Drew #3166

that's my story and I'm stickin to it, HONEST OFFICER