Polishing aluminum

jeffnoel

Founding Member
Aug 31, 2002
1,638
5
37
Clovis, CA
Does anyone have a how to on polishing aluminum? I just picked up an aluminum crossflow radiator and was thinking it would look pretty cool with the tanks polished.

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Is the chrome trim around the windows aluminum? Because all of mine will have to be polished. Also the headlight trim, side marker light bezels, taillight trim, pony, emblems. Is all of this aluminum? All of it is really dull and weathered.
 
good thread....does anyone know how to polish up the aluminum on the door panels where the cobraii insert is? i ruined one i got from ebay. it had a small shinny/dull spot when i got it, tried to buff and rub it out with some polish. Won't do that shi* again. Anybody find any tricks to restoring these aluminuim door panels? anybody know of anyone restoring these aluminum door plates? I sent a bunch to Fortuna to work on and he never got back to me and won't answer my emails. :shrug:
 
As long as you are buffing or rubbing, it is hard to go wrong with Aluminum. Where people generally screw up is they use some sandpaper they got at the local hardware store on it. You need to progressively work from a rough grit sandpaper (say 400 for Alum) to a very fine grit (say 4000)... then rub and buf and it should look awesome.

d
 
GOOD THREAD IDEA! i have been researching this for a while. I read some how to articles, grew some balls, went to sears and bought a 'metal polishing kit' (attachements for a dremel and some powder), and tested it on my brand new C&L mass-air meter. The results were not good. I could have got the same finish using polish, but instead i spent 1.5 hours in the garage grinding away at this thing according to the directions. After step 1 it looked real shiny but the instructions demanded not to stop there. :bs: by stage three the thing was the same as when i first bought it but now it has little shiny lines all over it :bang: . i think it waas the cheap bits i bought but im not sure. you are supposed to finish with a 2000 grit sandpaper, but none of the sanding bits were labeled so i used the softest one :shrug:

ps-anyone wanna buy a polished' C&L meter???
 
dmoody said:
As long as you are buffing or rubbing, it is hard to go wrong with Aluminum. Where people generally screw up is they use some sandpaper they got at the local hardware store on it. You need to progressively work from a rough grit sandpaper (say 400 for Alum) to a very fine grit (say 4000)... then rub and buf and it should look awesome.

d




I have used never dull it works pretty well doesn't remove material just oxidation and light rust on steering wheels, handle bar on bikes and stuff brought my rims back to life