How do you polish metal stuff?

[firebirdcrazy]

How does one polish up the AC Condenser and other parts of the same metal?

[WildBillyT]

With a wheel and polishing compound. Pampered-Z does a lot of polishing, let me see if he is around.

[firebirdcrazy]

WHat kind of wheel? I just bought a few for my drill.

[WildBillyT]

WHat kind of wheel? I just bought a few for my drill.

There are different kinds for different kinds of metal.

Browse around here a little bit:

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=432

A drill is good but if you have access to a bench grinder it will work better for a lot of things.

[edpontiac91]

Blue Magic works well, but with ANY of the metal polishes, you'll need a strong finger and LOTS of patience to bring up the shine. Start with the aluminum parts, they come out the best. Most of the parts are really quite difficult to get a wheel on it, plus the spatter will make quite a mess. But to each his own!

[Pampered-Z]

The smooth parts will shine up a bit using common aluminum polish, such as Mothers or Wenzol and some elbow grease.

But if you really want them to pop, you need to do a bit more.

Below is a real nice guide to how to polish metal with general tools. I'm impresses he was able to do such a nice job with only using a drill! A compressor and die grinder will make short work of polishing. He had to spend allot of hours using a drill!

http://www.poleringsguide.se/english/

With the smooth parts such as the AC parts and lines, all you will need to do is start on page #3.

I have a large compressor, collection of various die grinders, bench buffers etc. I had a small 20 gallon compressor too, but I actually burned it up polishing, Die grinders use allot of air. I'd bet drills overheat and burn up fairly quickly too.

You can get all the supplies you'll need from Standard Abrasives or Eastwood.

http://www.standardabrasives.com/

http://www.eastwoodco.com/

They both carry top line stuff. StandA carries a larger line of the abrasives if you decide to polish ruff aluminum parts such as the alternator and such ( If you are going to the E-town swap meet next week, Eastwood normally has a stand there so you save shipping cost. )

The Buffing compound or Rouge is under $10 a bar, you use two, a heavier cutting compound ( Tripoli ) and a finer (White Rourge), the fob and wheels and anywhere from $2-$5 each, and you'll want a few of each, They come in various sizes to fit into all the locations.

A final wax (I perfer two products: Semichrome or Autosol ( Autosol seems to hold up better on parts that see heat such as an Intake or Valve covers).

Depending on your budget: An optional final step would be to use a sealer, the best out there is a product called Zoopseal. But Zoop is not cheap - a starter kit is $100. Over time (1-2 years ) the polished aluminum will oxidize and look tarnished, so you have to repolish it, Zoop will make the polishing last 4-5 years. So if you have allot of polished parts, Zoop is a good investment. ( Or you could blow you engine up and just repolish everything while it's apart, Um,, that's what I did!) :mad:

[usp55]

mothers polish is good.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z267/usp55/6hrsin.jpg

Thats after a few hours. The ac condensor and lines are easy but anything like the intake on my 3.4 that is not smooth will take for ever to sand down.

[Teds89IROC]

It's difficult to see the shine but I sanded the ruff finish off the plenum and polished it with 3M rubbing compound for the deep scratches, then turtle wax metal/chrome polish with a buffer. What also helps is use very fine sandpaper and wetsand it then polish it out. After I polished it I painted the "veins" chevy orange.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/TeddyHELLO/IROC-Z/PB230003.jpg