Polishing Aluminum

[Ohio-Rider]

I’m working on an older Triumph and plan on shining up all the aluminum parts before re-assembling the bike. I have a pedestal grinder which is powered by a ½ hp furnace blower motor via a fan belt. I’ve checked with a few local shops that offer this type of service and find that they charge $52.00 per hour to do polishing. I was told it would cost around $150.00 just to have the fork tubes polished. Ouch! I don’t have a grand to spend on having someone else do my polishing so I’m on my own again.

Any suggestions on which type polishing wheels/compound would be best to use on parts like the fork tubes, wheel hubs, side casings, ect, to bring them back to an original shine?
Thanks in advance. -Steve

[Rooster]

I had very good luck with the stuff you can buy at Sears--- different colored rouge sticks for different levels of abrasiveness, and stacks of cloth wheels. Use lower speeds, as high speeds will 'burn' the aluminum. Start with the more coarse rouge stick (forgot what colors are what now--- red, green, and white) and work your way up. Toss the cloth wheel when going to the next level of abrasiveness; change the wheels often for the best results.
When I polished the aluminum parts on my Shovelhead FLH, I borrowed my friends ShopSmith and set it up horizontally, with the arbor out on the end so I could more easily manipulate the parts around the wheel. I spent hours and hours polishing the fork sliders, headlight nacelle, and I don't remember what else. The results were fantastic and long-lasting, even without a clearcoat.

[Ohio-Rider]

Thanks, You've taught me something already. So the wheels are just cloth and you add the abrasive to the wheel as needed? I was thinking the wheels where more like the flapper wheels I'm familiar with and have the abrasive embedded in them and come in differant grit's like sand paper.

[Rooster]

Nope, just plain cloth wheels. You need a bunch of them. Apply the rouge to the wheel, then the work the part on wheel free-hand. Some of the nooks and crannies are hard to get to, but you'll figure it out.

[exeric]

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.

[rwrun]

For 150 bucks you can get this 8" buffer from Sears and do all your own buffing whenever you need to. I bought this one and it works great.
Harbor Freight has one for half the cost but doesn't work as well.

[Rooster]

Good tip. I was going to mention that you can get the rouge sticks from a good auto body shop, too. They are larger and cheaper than Sears.

[Ohio-Rider]

Thanks for all the reply’s guys. Have any of you tried using an aluminum deoxidizer for cleaning up your parts? I’ve been told that it works great and cuts the buffing time in half.
http://www.californiacustom.com/ourproducts.html

Before I start buffing these parts I need to also find out just how shiny they where to begin with so I don’t go over board while polishing. I don’t believe they where a mirror finish when new, so that may make my job a bit easier. Anybody got a good photo of how good the finishes where when new?

[Paps]

Use clean wheels when finishing up. No compound on the wheel. A dremel is great for those tight places. Most hardware stores sell the micro wheels for the dremels. Paps

[flat-happy]

for what it's worth i never use the red on aluminum. i only use that on steel if i'm going to send it to the chrome plater. i find it too coarse for aluminum. i start with gray then finish with white. white is basically just a cleaner. i have never changed wheels in between but i do clean off the previous compound with a big old screwdriver tip before using the finer stuff. i used to blue a lot of gun barrels and i used the red then the gray then the white and always got awesome results. i remember i used to polish the bolt on Mauser action rifles and they would never rust as long as you keep wd-40 on it. they looked like they were chrome plated years later. you need the wheels to be about 1 1/2" wide so i think about 4 layers thick is what i have on there now

[portagepan]

But first

Safety!! Buffing produces dust which is hazardous, and the operation itself is very tricky. The loose final polish wheels are the most dangerous. Follow ALL safety prcautions.Believe me, sooner or later a part will fly out of your hand, and if you are lucky, and are prepared, maybe it won't be destroyed, and you will survive. I would practice on some junk piece first. Doing your own work is fun, if you follow proper procedure.
Mike

[D.Mac]

Aluminum polish

Before I start buffing these parts I need to also find out just how shiny they where to begin with so I don’t go over board while polishing. I don’t believe they where a mirror finish when new, so that may make my job a bit easier.

Ohio-Rider,
The aluminum polish on the older Triumphs was certainly not a mirror finish, in fact it's hard not to overdo it (but it sure looks good!) One problem I've run into, is by the time I've polished out all the scratches, dings and other boo-boos it already looks too good. I guess a purist would say mine ('53) is over-polished, but the fact is the overall finish on these bikes when new wasn't near what we are seeing on most restored examples these days. As for the actual polishing, the more horsepower the better on your motor, and as mentioned hang on to the part, but be carefull as the wheel will want to grab it. This can send it flying, damaging either the part or yourself. Also the part will get hot, especially if you work one area too long, I usually try to have several pieces I'm working on at a time. Last but not least, polishing, especially aluminum, is dirty work. The compounds have a grease type base, and mixed with the aluminum particles will turn you, your clothes, your shop, the dog, and everything else nearby greasy black For supplies, there are usually guys selling everything you need at most automobile swap-meets.
Doug.

[Ohio-Rider]

Wow…. Let’s see now, time consuming, tedious, dirty and can be some what dangerous. I can’t wait to get started. I don’t want that mess in my shop so now I’ll have to talk someone into using theirs. What do you say Kurt? Paps? Anybody?

Its sounds like the setup I have using a furnace motor isn’t going to be the way to go. I looked at a few different buffers online and they all seem to run around the 3500 rpm range. That’s a whole lot faster than what I expected to need. Yeah! I get to go get a new tool to play with.

[flat-happy]

there's a lot to be said about learning how to do it yourself. you will learn it quickly though. aluminum especially seems to have a "grain" to it and you'll see a difference for instance on a fork leg. buff along the leg top to bottom instead of across for best results. i have a friend who is very strong and was buffing without the buffer bolted down. when the wheel grabbed the part he held on tight and it threw the buffer into the floor breaking the housing. he had to go buy another one. lots to be learned especially about safety. if aluminum gets too shiny when buffing out imperfections you can dull the finish slightly using scotchbrite but practice on junk parts first. that stuff is great for making all parts look the same after the bike is fully assembled and finished too but it takes practice and patience. have fun---if you live in a warm climate or have a way to make it portable you can do all your buffing outside on a sunny day----that's what i do to get rid of the mess

[Paps]

I swap my bench grinder wheels out for buffing wheels Steve. Arbor attachments are available to fit the bench grinders. Paps