What do you guys think is the best aluminum polish for removing oxidation and scratches? The valve cover on my 240z has nicks all through it; hopefully they will polish out. I'm guessing I'll need a pretty abrasive polish to get the job done right.

Do you have any pictures of the "nicks" and "scratches"? You may be facing a job of sanding prior to polishing. Many of us have refurbished these things so I'm sure if we saw what you were talking about you'd get some good advice. (For cam covers, check out the photo gallery - lots of pictures by many members.)

Polish will only shine the metal that is smooth and blemish free. If you have scratches or nicks you will need to lower the surrounding level of metal down to the bottom level of the scratch or nick. Now having said that , polish will remove some metal , not much but a little. Light surface blemishes can be removed with polish with a lot of rubbing. So if you want to remove a scratch , buy some 1500 grit wet/dry sand paper and use water or kerosene to wet the paper and remove the metal and blend in the scratch. Then I use a buffing wheel on either a die grinder or on my drill press and some polishing compound to buff out the light scratches left by the 1500 paper. Also try some 0000 ,4 ott, steel wool, with any liquid aluminum polish. I know of no short cuts , it just takes time.

Gary

hollelujaw brotha.

Elbow grease, sweat, tears and a whole lotta sanding and polish. Look at the carb forum, you'll see the domes I just did. They are small and still took about an hour and a half each. Those, compared to a whole valve cover = time and patience.

Have fun, the end result is well worth the effort.

Dave.

Like Dave said.... "Elbow grease, sweat, tears and a whole lotta sanding and polish......"

But the results are likely to please you.

I would recommend Autosol as a good polish for all metals.

I like to use Nevr-Dull for any king of metal polish.

on my wheels I did light wet sanding with 1500 grit then 2000 grit paper. Then switched to eagle1 polish on a Mothers powerball mini until it shreaded. Losing hope at that point I switched to Mothers Billet polish:

http://www.mothers.com/02_products/05106.html

and a couple drill mounted buffers from the local Harbor Freight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=34743

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?itemnumber=65001

on the other 2 wheels I've done so far I did more sanding, even starting with 600 paper, since as they said above the polish won't take out much of an imperfection. With the finer grit papers I find it easy for it to gunk up with stuff and actually leave some pretty bad scratches if I don't keep the water flowing.

that is when the finish came alive

Edited February 20, 200916 yr by ta240

Never-Dull.... as used on Air Force 1. No question it's one of the best products for metal polishing by hand. I've been using it since the mid-60's.

I don't know what "Eagle One" adds to the price - but you can buy the original at any ACE Hardware store.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Never-Dull....

great, with my addiction to all things polish, I have to get some now.

I asked an old timer, old school, mechanic, gear-head this question yesterday and his reply was quick, "Nevr-Dull".

Bonzi Lon

Never-Dull.... as used on Air Force 1. No question it's one of the best products for metal polishing by hand. I've been using it since the mid-60's.

I don't know what "Eagle One" adds to the price - but you can buy the original at any ACE Hardware store.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Yeah I am not sure about the egle one thing but I do know that you can get it just about anywhere. Walmart, Kmart, etc.

Here is a pick of the original container.