Anyone have tips on polishing parts?

89XR7TD

SCCoA Member
Had some ideas of polishing my aluminum parts, just bought a micro polishing kit with 3" pad wheels and air gun. I would like to hear some ideas or tips on starting the process all the way til finish. It's been on my mind for a while and now that winter is here, getting a little bored and wanted to try polishing to a nice chrome shine. Any tips or info would be greatly appreciated, all I know is that it is a long process!!:rolleyes:
Thanks Everyone,

Tom
 
Check out eastwood supplies they have very nice compounds and all the tools to get it done properly. You need alot of patience to do this and some safety equipment I personally polished a complete set of supercoupe wheels using an air die grinder with a 3 inch buffing wheel.....it sucked I spent about 20 hours a piece on them and went home looking like a coalminer every day.
Alan
 
Thanks for the tip!!!

Dirtyd0g said:
Check out eastwood supplies they have very nice compounds and all the tools to get it done properly. You need alot of patience to do this and some safety equipment I personally polished a complete set of supercoupe wheels using an air die grinder with a 3 inch buffing wheel.....it sucked I spent about 20 hours a piece on them and went home looking like a coalminer every day.
Alan

I knew that it was very time consuming, but wasn't sure how I start out with what pad and stuff like that, eastwood supplies hmmm... I will check them out!!! Thanks Dirtydog!!!

Tom:)
 
If you do a search on polishing you should get a few pretty decent threads on it.

I have done a fair amount of polishing myself and it does not have to be all that time consuming. The biggest factor is the condition or stage that the metal is in to start with. For instance a Pulley Tensioner...If you strip these to bare metal they are very smooth to begin with so it takes little to no time to get a good luster on them. Parts with casting marks or pits are the parts that take more time. Once you get the hang of it things will go quickly.

And I would second Eastwood Products. The Tri-poly compunds are a must. Wet-Dry sand paper in all ranges as well...Flap brushes will cut alot of work out when you have a really nasty piece of metal to polish.


Brad
 
89XR7TD said:
Had some ideas of polishing my aluminum parts, just bought a micro polishing kit with 3" pad wheels and air gun. I would like to hear some ideas or tips on starting the process all the way til finish. It's been on my mind for a while and now that winter is here, getting a little bored and wanted to try polishing to a nice chrome shine. Any tips or info would be greatly appreciated, all I know is that it is a long process!!:rolleyes:
Thanks Everyone,

Tom
After any sanding that's needed, the first steps of polishing require some torque. Don't know what a "micro polishing" kit is but keep in mind that 99% of the job is to get a semi-mirror finish before the final buff.
Use some Tripoli to do the major part so you get it down to a hazy shine, then the final buff with White rouge. Again, White rouge is not for polishing...don't expect to use it to do any major work.

Important tip > Well, you're not gonna like this but use a different wheel for each of your rouges. You just CANNOT use a wheel that's had Red or Tripoli rouge on it and then use the same wheel for the White. You will NEVER get the all the Red out that's now imbedded in the wheel.

hope this helps,

'bird
 
I agree on the compound wheels the wheels are cheap when I did mine I had 1 die grinder set up with rough and one with the white. That white stuff does an awesome job. I also used some soft grinding wheels from standard abrasives..they saved me alot of muscle aches. The reason the wheels are so hard is because for starters they are plastic coated. Once you get the plastic off you will find they are a rough sand casting. Now I need to polish them up again and zoop seal them. Already smooth parts are pretty easy to polish. I have polished a bunch of aluminum pullies in just a minute or two.
Alan
 
Be careful, it can be addicting...

tens2549.jpg


'bird
 
Just for the sake of less confusion....When I mentioned Tri-Poly compunds I was referring to the 3 stages of polishing compounds; Red (Course), Gray (Medium) & White (Fine)


Brad
 
Thank you all for the helpful tips!!!

I appreciate the info really! And nice tensioners Wynn, now if I could get mine to look like that(Awsome man)!How long do you think it will take to polish a supercharger, manifold, IC Tubes? These are my main objectives
Thanks again to you all!

Tom:)
 
89XR7TD said:
I appreciate the info really! And nice tensioners Wynn, now if I could get mine to look like that(Awsome man)!How long do you think it will take to polish a supercharger, manifold, IC Tubes? These are my main objectives
Thanks again to you all!

Tom:)


Tom,
You have your work cut out for you with the SC & Manifold...The others are drop kicks though...I would start with the Pullies and the IC Tubes.


Brad
 
Your right Brad!!!

cudaz101 said:
Tom,
You have your work cut out for you with the SC & Manifold...The others are drop kicks though...I would start with the Pullies and the IC Tubes.


Brad

Starting with the smaller things is best and better to get a feel for how all this works and comes into play. I hope that the kit that I bought will be ok cause, from reading these threads some of you have used die grinders, this kit that I bought includes some 3" foam pads,3" buffer pad, and looks like a small 2 speed air gun with high and low speeds from Blue Point. Maybe I should look into getting something bigger?
Thanks again!

tom:)
 
I use a Drill motor for some areas or parts as well as a old bench grinder that I lengthened the shaft on sporting 8-10" wheels. Its nice to be able to hold onto the parts as apposed to using a vice. You can really work the metal over with a pedistal motor. Looking at your list of parts you may want to think about doing something similar with a grinder motor or something. Depends on how much work you want to cut out AND how much more polishing you may want to do later. As per above...It is a bit addicting...


Brad
 
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