All metals can be made to shine. It doesn't cost much and if properly maintained can be a better protective finish than paint. Aluminum is probably the one most people would polish, you may find some brass pieces and even steel will shine. Then we also have alot of plastic lenses that get scratched up over time but even plastic can be polished and its alot easier than metal polishing. Some different things I have polished. All could use a good buffing and would shine alot better but those rims were originally polished 10 years ago Aluminum valve covers Aluminum rims Steel rods Brass radiators Plastic lenses (in all the pictures the bottom half of the lense has been polished the top half above the black stripe has not been polished) Since plastic is so easy I'll do it first. This is all you need. - a hunk of plastic - blue polishing compound - buffing wheel - power drill Spin the buffing wheel and push it gently onto the polishing compound until you see the edge of the wheel turning blue (I have way to much but it's not going to hurt anything just waisting polish) remove the wheel from the compound and apply it to the plastic. -keep the wheel moving, don't let it sit in one place -let the wheel float over the piece, apply very little pressure - vary the direction of the wheel see following example Dont just keep the wheel moving in one direction, scratches that are in the same direction as the rotation of the wheel will not be removed, to get those scratches rotate the wheel 90 degrees. I also rotate the wheel +&- 45 degrees. With the exception of deep scratches the blue polish will make the lense look almost new. (in all the pictures the bottom half of the lense has been polished the top half above the black stripe has not been polished) So WTF is this blue polish ? Polishes come in different colors and coarseness. Basically its very very very fine sandpaper(wax and abrasive mixed together) that you stick on the end of a buffing pad. The chart above lists different materials and what compounds to use. You can also read their tip for polishing. I use a different wheel for each compound. It's just easier and your buffing wheels will last longer. You can use a hacksaw blade as a rake if you only have 1 wheel. What else do I need to polish metal ? If you really want to torture yourself all you need is various grades of sandpaper and the previously mentioned polishing compounds and some clean rags. You can hand sand everything and you can hand buff everything but it will take you a while. In some cases the manual method is the only option. If you have some basic tools you can make polishing alot easier in most cases. - power drill (note the duct tape on the metal pieces of the drill, you'll thank me later) - random orbit sander - a mouse is nice - a rotary tool is also nice (note the duct tape on the metal piece of the rotary tool, you'll thank me later) Sandpaper Depending on the condition of the metal various grades of sandpaper will be required. -220 grit can be used to remove old paint and metal, if you have some sort of old finish on the piece you want to paint it is much easier to use a chemical stripper to remove the old finish than it is to sand it off. -400 grit can be used to begin the polishing process at this point I start to wet sand. -600 grit continue wet sanding -1000 grit continue wet sanding -1500 grit finish wet sanding, you don't really need 1500 you can finish with 1000 When you are sanding it is very very very important to sand in an orbital motion. If you have to hand sand then move the paper in a circular motion. Never never never move the paper back and forth. If you have a power sander make sure it has an orbital motion. Ok enough crap lets polish something ! I'll take you through the steps of polishing some aluminum more specifically the top front of the tmic. As you can see above the first thing was to remove the old paint. I would recommend using a chemical stripper to do this but it was still on the car so I sanded it with 220 grit dry sandpaper. Next you need a bucket of water and a cloth or sponge so that you can squeeze the sponge and drip water on the piece you sanding. Once you have some water on the part you can start to sand it with 400 grit. As you sand the water will start to dry out and you will create a metallic sludge. It is best to wipe of the area frequently with the sponge to pick up the metalic residue so it does not clog the sandpaper. Repeat the wet sanding process with 600,1000,1500 grit paper and then your ready to polish the metal. As was the case for plastic dont just keep the wheel moving in one direction, scratches that are in the same direction as the rotation of the wheel will not be removed, to get those scratches rotate the wheel 90 degrees. I also rotate the wheel +&- 45 degrees. After buffing with black compound After buffing with white compound After buffing with green compound After buffing the right half with blue compound The finished product with the flash of a camera does not do it justice. Without a camera flash Once again without a camera flash Well thats enough for now. I'll add a bit more later and also do a bit about polishing the brass radiator and other brass parts.
Some good ideas there for stuff to polish up.... Also seeing the door parts reminded me that I can't unlock the passenger side door for some reason haha
Well then your in the wrong forum. You should be 1 forum further down. INTERIOR ---> Power Window & Power Lock Maintenance
Well I wasn't really trying to plug Mothers metal polish, it is a good product but for the best final polishing I would recommend either Autosol or Simichrome and I tend to lean towards Simichrome.
Yesterday I took one of my old All Trac rims and removed the stock factory finish on it and polished it up so this is the wet sanding process that will prepare it for polishing. What you start with and what you end with. Total time 3 hours. Wet sanding is as implied wet. Keep the area your working in covered in water. The left side of the wheel is about as dry as you should let it get. It is ready to have all the sanding sludge wiped or rinsed off and covered with more water. Keep in mind that you are using a power tool and water and 120 volts don't like each other. You may wan't to look into a rechargeable option for your sander. I started the process by removing the old factory finish with 50 grit emery cloth on my 1/4 sheet orbital sander. I started by wet sanding for a couple of minutes with a new piece of 50 grit sandpaper and then I let the wheel dry out and continued sanding the wheel with the same piece of 50 grit sandpaper dry. I started out wet because they say a wet piece of sandpaper is one grit level smoother that the same piece is dry so in this case 50 grit wet = 80 grit dry and I wanted to get all the realy rough bits off the 50 grit piece so it didn't put gouges in the wheel. By starting out wet it knocked all the realy rough bits off the sandpaper and then I continued sanding dry. I used 2 pieces of 50 grit sandpaper repeating the wet breakin process for the second piece and then going back to dry sanding after a couples of minutes. It took me about 90 minutes to sand the wheel with 50 grit. This is the most critical stage of the sanding process. Any imperfections you don't get out know are not going to get removed with finer grades of sandpaper. In comparison each of the remaining sanding stages will take about 15 minutes. After 50 grit wet/dry sanding After 150 grit wet sanding After 320 grit wet sanding After 400 grit wet sanding After 600 grit wet sanding After 1000 grit wet sanding After 1500 grit wet sanding I polished the left half of the wheel with black compound for a couple of minutes just to give you an idea of what has been accomplished. 1500 grit on the right sside and the initial polishing on the left side. 3 hours total so far. Another hour to go through the various polishing compounds and the wheel is ready to go back on.
Yesterday I did the drivers side front rim and today I did the passenger side front. This is a shot halfway through dry sanding with 50 grit. You can still see black spots that need to be removed before swaping to 150 grit. Another shot halfway through with 50 grit. Throw something in the background for a reflection after final polishing. Ready to go back on the car. Started at 2pm & finished at 6:30pm took a couple of breaks so total time was about 4 hours.
Probably paint them black. If I get real energetic I'll polish them up during next winter. I'll at least polish the outside ring while the wheels are off next winter.
Nice finish. Does it have to be sealed or protected to prevent corrosion from attacking the freshly polished surface?
Their is a product called zoopseal that you can get but nothing is permanent. Zoopseal claims to last 2-3 years. At $120 for enough to do an engine & 4 rims its not woth the money to me. Any good polish like Mothers or the other 2 I pictured above will remove minor oxidation and bring back a nice new shine so I would just polish them each month or 2 and give them a good polish before winter storage.
