Polishing Aluminium

Corax · Post by **Corax** » Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:28 pm

Hey Suba-dudes,

Got a 5 poster aluminium bull bar which I hang off the front of my Brumbies and want to polish it up to as close to a chrome finish as possible and was wondering what is the best stuff to use? Went to the local auto shop and there was about 6 products claiming that they would do the job. Anybody have any ideas/thoughts which brand will do the job? Thanks for any advice.

Cheers,
Corax.

SuBaRiNo · Post by **SuBaRiNo** » Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:43 pm

My opinion and what i use AutoSol... love the stuff.

Dave

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:13 pm

for me... I find Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish

Ive used this stuff on nearly everything (brass, copper, alloy, steel etc) I find it better than AutoSol.. (not having a go at you SuBaRiNo as everyone has their own opinion.)
Cheers
AP

wrxer · Post by **wrxer** » Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:55 pm

depends on the scratches, but start with a wet and dry p600 ish. work finer till at p1200 or p2000 then the mothers polish. use hair spray to put a protective layer on it

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 3:20 am

then there is purple polish, being liquid , a little easier to work with than the pastes

H-top · Post by **H-top** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 6:50 am

+1 for autosol. I use it on my brass. And because it's a past you'll never spill it

spike · Post by **spike** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:20 am

when we built the fuel injection we used a cloth impregnated polish, not too sure maybe somone can help me out, basicly it came in a tub and you pull bits of almost cotton wool out and just start polishing away came up mint, were now using that on everything aluminium instead of the car polish we used to use

Suby Roo · Post by **Suby Roo** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:48 am

Purple polish & steel wool works the best IMHO

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:31 am

that would be 000 or 0000 grade steel wool too now wouldn't it. Sometime needs a cleaning supplies or craft supplies type shop to get it this fine. The more zeros, the finer it is. Use normal steel wool on glass and gets scratches, same may be for aluminium.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:32 am

Spike, it may be Briteshine cotton wadding in a yellow tin. Not the most industrial of polishers in my experience. Been about the ten dollar mark for 25 years!!

Suby Roo · Post by **Suby Roo** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:35 am

steptoe wrote:that would be 000 or 0000 grade steel wool too now wouldn't it. Sometime needs a cleaning supplies or craft supplies type shop to get it this fine. The more zeros, the finer it is. Use normal steel wool on glass and gets scratches, same may be for aluminium.

It is 000 grade wool, last thing i polished was some chrome wheel dress rims, and no scratches at all, but ive done wheels, bullbars, switches etc all with the same results

Post by **Alex** » Fri Mar 26, 2010 10:58 am

mequires nxt generation metal polish...in a purple tube. Works AWESOME

alex

d_generate · Post by **d_generate** » Sat Mar 27, 2010 12:12 am

Brasso, used to use it on my old Cruiser bar & it came up like chrome, easy to use, lasts for ages & relatively cheap, a mate of mine has an aluminum manufacturing workshop and he swears by it too. If you want to seal it use Incralac, it's designed for brass but works as well on alloy and wipes off with thinners if you want to redo it a year or 2 down the track.
You could also buy a cloth buff for a drill & buy the brown polishing block from a tool shop, worked brilliantly when I was buffing my alloy engine parts but I used it on a bench grinder.

dibs · Post by **dibs** » Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:07 am

iv used steelo soap pads , all sort of alloy polish that wading stuf ,but found using jewellers rouge with all of the above to do first part and a soft polishing pad on a drill or bench grinder was the best for buffing to the finish you want ,but remember alloy needs a lot of attention when polished

dibs

maxxair · Post by **maxxair** » Sat Mar 27, 2010 1:46 pm

A True polish is done with sandpaper, starting coarser, getting finer with the soapy steel wool pads in between each grade of paper, rubbing in small circles. the paper 'opens' the metal up, while the steelwool 'closes' the grain of the metal. get to 2000 paper, and dont use steel wool after that, just autosol (brassos good too, and the others, probly) this will be a mirrior finish. the 'proper' way to polish, it just takes ages and heaps of elbow grease. I was taught by a friends dad who did it for a living. he was awsome.

Cheers, Rohan Maxim

r.i.p. des.