Aluminum Polishing gurus??

[Injected1]

I need some help please. I have been polishing aluminum for almost 2 months now and no matter what I do I can't get rid of the swirls/haziness for the final step. My aluminum polishing process consists of black rouge on a spiral sewn wheel then, brown rouge on a spiral sewn wheel and that gets a mirror finish out of it. However the final step white rouge on any wheel gets a haziness in the aluminum that I don't like. I have tried almost every over the counter aluminum polishing and they all seem to harsh. I read that mother's billet polish on a rubber nitrile glove might do it so I will try that today. Does anyone else have any tips for me to get rid of the fine swirls/haziness??

Thanks, for any help,
Nick

 

[SY2932]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

Are you using the same wheel for all your buffing operations? If so, that is a BIG no no. Use a different wheel for each compound and mark the direction of rotation on the side. Make sure that ALL the previous buffing compound is removed from your part before you proceed to the next one. I use lacquer thinner and COTTON rags. Don't use paper towels, you WILL scratch your part if you do.

With white rouge, you want to be using a loose cotton or flannel wheel. If you are using a sprial sewn wheel with the white rouge, that is where your haziness is coming from. White rouge is a coloring compound NOT a cutting one so it won't put scratches in a part by itself. When you are in the final buffing operations be sure to rake your wheel often to remove any clumps of compound that may have built up on the wheel.

BTW, no hand applied polish (Wenol, Mother's, Simichrome, etc) will ever match the level of finish that you can get with a buffing wheel. The reason is you will never get a cloth that is as "soft" as the edges of a buffing wheel at 1800 RPM. For that reason, I rebuff my parts occasionally to remove the scratches from hand polishing them to keep them looking nice:

Threads like this ALWAYS end up getting me PM's to polish stuff. Just for the record it takes me about 60 hours to do an intake and I charge $20 an hour...

 

[JSM]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

Threads like this ALWAYS end up getting me PM's to polish stuff. Just for the record it takes me about 60 hours to do an intake and I charge $20 an hour...

So $120 right? :tup:

$400 for the whole motor.

Where can I ship my truck?

 

[TNPhoon]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

So $120 right? :tup:

Ummmmmm....Math Fail?

 

[sharkbait]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

So $120 right? :tup:

$400 for the whole motor.

Where can I ship my truck?

man, im a STD (stupid truck driver) and i didn't come up with $120.:rotf::rotf::rotf:

 

[socal]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

no no no it's 6 $2's, the zeros cancel out

 

[sycho]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

its kinda like paint work, the better the prep, the better the turn out. lots of sanding, start only as rough as you need but always finish with 12-1500 grit. then high speed clean buffer with mothers polish, and clean cotton towels. lots of work, nothing really easy about it... then there is choice #2.... chrome it!

 

[SY2932]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

So $120 right? :tup:

$400 for the whole motor.

Where can I ship my truck?

Nope, you forgot a zero buddy ! But if you still want to send it my way go for it. The total would probably cover the cost of my rebuild :lol:.

One other thing that I forgot to mention was that with white rouge, you have to do a coloring pass instead of a cutting one. The difference between the two is that a cutting pass runs the part AGAINST the direction of the wheel rotation. This keeps the compound in front of the wheel to do the work. On a coloring pass, the part goes in the SAME direction as the wheel rotation since you are laying down color to give the part luster. When you do everything right, the results speak for themselves:

 

[randy merritt]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

how is the build going. Let me know when it is getting close.

 

[tfink660]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

Nope, you forgot a zero buddy ! But if you still want to send it my way go for it. The total would probably cover the cost of my rebuild :lol:.

One other thing that I forgot to mention was that with white rouge, you have to do a coloring pass instead of a cutting one. The difference between the two is that a cutting pass runs the part AGAINST the direction of the wheel rotation. This keeps the compound in front of the wheel to do the work. On a coloring pass, the part goes in the SAME direction as the wheel rotation since you are laying down color to give the part luster. When you do everything right, the results speak for themselves:

that wheel is awsome.. Where did you get it?

 

[Bad Ass Black Trucks]

Re: Aluminum Polishing gurus??

Also, if you are going from a rough surface and need to sand the part down get wed/dry paper and use a liquid!! The first thing I ever polished was an alternator and I went through so much paper because it kept loading up and it took forever. Later, I found out from a machinist that wet sanding keeps the paper from loading up and will keep the sandpaper useful for a longer period. He recommended WD-40 and it works well. Messy, but works well. I have been polishing some stainless lately and wet/dry works well on SS too.

Looks like I need to follow SY2932's advice though. I have been using the same wheel for most of my powered polishing and I can see some fine marks that won't come out. I do get good results out of microfiber towels when I hand polish though.