Aluminum Polish

[JohnnyO]

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

I've been using Nevr Dull since my Navy days. They used to have me polish the water fountain with it......

Taxpayer dollars hard at work.

[lm71z]

Here's a picture of the valve cover I'm going to polish. Do you think these scratches(more like dark spots) require sandpaper?

Edited February 21, 2009 by lm71z

[MikeW]

Here's a picture of the valve cover I'm going to polish. Do you think these scratches(more like dark spots) require sandpaper?

It's hard to tell from the picture but from my experience, yes. It all depends on how good you want the finished product to be and what your starting point is. It's easy enough for you to determine without getting in over your head. Go get a bunch of grades of sandpaper and simply start with the finest grade. It won't cost you much. Pick the worst area of your valve cover and sand it with the finest grade paper (say 1500 wet/dry). Did that leave you with a perfect finish? If so, you've got it easy. If not, try a little 1000 and see what happens. If you find you're not really making a dent then keep working your way coarser. I'm fairly certain I needed 80 or 120 to truly remove the defects that I wanted to remove. Once you've removed the defects you move to a finer grade and use that to remove the scratches left by the previous grade. It's a long, dirty, and tedious process if you're starting with a poor finish. The biggest mistake is to not be aggressive enough and to use a grit or polish that is too fine. Sure, any polish is going to remove a small amount of material and you could probably get an awesome finish if you polished it for years. You'd eventually get the finish you want. Using different grades of sandpaper is effectively taking big shortcuts.

[DeesZ]

That cover doesn't look too bad. My guess is that it will require something a bit more harsh than Nevr-Dull, at least to start with. And yes, it'll might require sanding. The good news is that the spotting doesn't appear to be too deep, and you could likely start with a finer grade paper which would get you to the end (1500 wet) quicker. There is a chance that the polish may work for you, too. Try the polish first and see what happens. Just be prepared that you might have to take the extra steps.

The Nevr-Dull is great for the final stage polish. You could begin with something like Mothers that will be a bit more effective removing the spots, then graduate up to Nevr-Dull. Trial and error will be your friend here, but now you know the options.

[Carl Beck]

Glass Bead Blast it first..... then sand it... then polish it.

Better still - just buy a polished valve cover. Unless you really want to get into and continue polishing metal... In which case, I'd get on-line and order one of many many CD/DVD's that show you how. Then join a Metal Polishing forum and find out what tools and polishing products work best with them...

FWIW,

Carl B.

[Zs-ondabrain]

Just remember that the crap on the surface is what slows you down and causes the most work. By bead blasting, you'll remove the "Crust" that is basically, dirt, grease, baked on hard-water and coolant, and maybe even get some dirt out of the cracks. But try and only do a light "Dusting of the surface" to avoid pitting the aluminum with the Glass bead.

The Wet-sanding will remove the rest of the crap and Level the high spots and make the pits and divots, not so deep. Like many others, I've done this a few times and if you've seen my engine compartment, you'll know what I'm talking about. It's very time consuming and I hope your arm and hands are up to the task. Just remember that the more surface you remove, the easier the polishing will be.

Dave

[fuzze]

Hi guys , I have been following this post and it seems we all want the same thing , our aluminum to look good . I am of the belief that it takes a lot of care and patience to get aluminum to reach a high polish . I always start with a very low # of sandpaper grit like 220 and systematically work up to a high # like 1500 and even 2000 in some cases . When I start to wet sand with the lowest # I like warm water with a tiny bit of laundry detergent added so that the oxidation has a method of carrying the minute particles away from the working surface . After I'm satisfied with the first # grit taking away the scratches and pits , I dump my water and then rinse out the bucket so that there won't be any grit possibly left and then make a new mix of water\soap and then proceed with the next higher # of grit , usually 320 and just like step one I sand entirely again . I repeat this process all the way up to 1500 and then and only then do I break out some polish . I prefer Autosol , although I have used never dull before with excellent results as well .

In the attached photo's are my son's wheels from his ''Ahem '' Honda and the wheel with the high polish took me almost four hr's to reach this point with out any aid of power tools at all . I do have buffing wheels and cutting polishes but I generally use those on my river boat where there are large area's to cover .

Turn up some some music and have a cold beverage when your hand starts to cramp and be patient and you will achieve good results as well .

I have seen Dave's engine bay in person when We where in Seattle a few months back and his methods are excellent as well .

take care

Chris