how to? - polish aluminum?

the only good thing about my ZR is it has an engine in the front

well thats not a good thing! lol but it means i can enter engine bay build competitions

in this vain i've lots of shiny things for the engine bay including some things that are aluminum but were powder coated

so any ideas on how best to polish said alloy up to mirror like perfection?

ive been told wet and dry? (i have various grades down to 1200)

then autosol?

That would be my advice too.
the trouble is your shiny aluminium bits will continue to oxidise, so you will either have to lacquer it or keep polishing.:yesnod:

Eastwood in the USA sells metal polishing kits with everything needed to waste a weekend. I believe that Frost sells some of their product lines in the UK. If Frost doesn't have it you can bet someone elso does.
In most cases modern castings are pretty smooth, and once the paint is chemically stripped it just take elbow grease to get a shine. The right felt bobs on a drill or buffer makes the job go much quicker.

Cheers,
Rich

Autosol is your friend!

I've been doing a lot of this lately an it does take one hell of a long time

I use about 180 grain wet an dry to get the worst off or paint, then go 300ish

After that it should look like brushed alloy, bit nice an bright

next you can get polishing kits from ebay for about £22ish, these kits connect to an electric drill

You get a spindle that fits both wheels, the wheels are one hard brush wheel and one cotton wheel,

first put the hard brush on, they also come with polishing wax, brown wax is for the hard wheel, load the wheel by spinning the wheel on the wax bar, or by rubbing it on the area your doing

The key to polishing alloy is don't over heat the metal or it will get a ripple effect, once your happy with the surface i.e. no pits or ripples, then change the wheel to the cotton one and repeat it all again with the cotton wheel and the blue wax bar this will bring it up to like a chrome finish

finally a quick going over with autosol and it will look amazing, if its an interior part you only need to polish it up every so often, if its an external part it will need laquer, if when you laquer it sometimes you loose the shine

One way around this is to warm all the area as much as you can with a hair dryer first, then spray a very light coat of laquer and repeat warm then spray until your happy with the effect

Its a real art though so take your time and the speed of doing it comes with time, its a lot like body work but worse to do in some cases as there isn't any paint to cover iffy bits

adam-mgtf wrote: the only good thing about my ZR is it has an engine in the front

well thats not a good thing! lol but it means i can enter engine bay build competitions

in this vain i've lots of shiny things for the engine bay including some things that are aluminum but were powder coated

so any ideas on how best to polish said alloy up to mirror like perfection?

ive been told wet and dry? (i have various grades down to 1200)

then autosol?

Brillo pads work well (fine wire wool & jewelers polish (pink stuff)) use them wet and then finish with Autosol. The details given by Rough Luck is excellent and will produce the results. It takes a long time, take it slowly and it will look superb. Frosts do the Eastwood products and polishing kits. :lol: :whistle:

thanks guys, jon, properly good info there! i dont think im going to have time to do all the work i need to do

hmm is there any way to stop heat ripple? the parts im polishing will be attached to the top of the engine

Arrr think you mis-understood you won't get heat ripple once the parts done ... i.e. heat from the engine

You only get heat ripple while your using the polishing wheel if you hold it in one place for too long and thats only really while your using the harder wheel not the buffing cotton wheel, just keep it moving even if its over an area of a few inches an you'll be fine

I only did it they way I did because it seens to be the quickest, ruff paper, then a little finer, the polishing wheel really takes the pit marks out nice an evenly