Anybody do polishing?

[Atreyu]

I want to start polishing nut dont know how. Ive got an air-powered dremmel. What else do I need?

[UglyMotha™]

:uhoh:

























AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

make it stop

[Dan300ex]

go to the local auto store and ask for "Mothers" it comes in a small little can and it works wonders for shiney surfaces.....trust me...;)

[trueblue450]

DO A SEARCH...:D

[Bretmd94]

Look for a brand called Wenol (fixed) or somthing like that. It comes in an orange tube. Thats the good stuff. You will only need the dremmel for tight corners and stuff. Most everything else can be done by hand. Get lots of different types of sandpaper. Up to like 3000 grit. You will need that to fix any chips or rough surfaces before polishing. I prefer using sand paper that can get wet. Wet sanding is the way to go.
For the polishing you need the special rags. I dunno whaty they are called but im sure you can find them pretty easily. They are a ton softer than regular towels and wont scratch what your trying to polish.
Once you have that stuff all you need to do is put in lots of time and elbow grease. The better the sanding you do before hand, the easier it will be to get a really nice polish. Stuff like brand new douglas rims dont need sanding though. You can jsut get out the polish and go after stuff like that.
Good luck.

[BRETZ56]

The proper spelling is Wenol

[Bretmd94]

Thanks, I was way off.

[wilkin250r]

The dremel won't be very good for big jobs. If you tried to polish your entire engine with a dremel, it would take you forever. The dremel is really good for polishing the tight corners.

Just like bret said, start with sanding. You don't want 60 grit or anything, that's way too rough (smaller number is larger grit size) because any scratches that you make with the 60 grit will need to be polished out. Start with something like a 200 grit.

Once you sand eveything with the 200, do it again with a finer sandpaper (400 grit), and then again with even finer, over and over with finer grit paper, up to the finest grit sandpaper that you can find. Then, get a polishing wheel and a polishing compound. You can get wheels that attach to a standard drill. The polishing compound also comes in different grit sizes. Use a course compound to start with, then move to a finder compound. Never re-use the same wheel, you will never remove all of the course compound. Get about 3 different polishing compunds, the last should be a very fine compund. After many hours of sanding and polishing, you will have a mirror finish.

For good results, there really isn't a shortcut. It's very labor-intensive, and if you don't put the time in, it will show in your finished product.

[Atreyu]

thanks guys

[Bretmd94]

Wilkin knows what hes talking about. I totally forgot about using a polishing wheel and polishing compounds. I have polished a lot of old Torque Thrust wheels for my dad. We used to find old ones at swaps and fix them up and sell them for like 200$ more. Its a lot of work.

[jamiesel]

I use an automotive paint polisher. non orbital the spinning type and white polish and jewlers rougue. After really l;aying into it I go for mothers or meguires by hand

[ktMan]

my dad does alot of polishing on his 4 wheeler and he uses sand paper and works his way down from a corse sand paper to a real fine sand paper then uses a good chrome polish to end it off ,and it works well ,he did the head on his banshee that way

[Fender Bender]

Yep, from coarse to really fine sandpaper then from coarse to really fine steel wool and top it off with some mothers and a buffing wheel;)

[toby400ex]

I used compounds a buffer wheel and some steel wool:o

[toby400ex]

:blah

[toby400ex]

this things awful purdy when its clean:blah

[Stevie-D]

man, screw polishin..just get some Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish...that stuff works awesome:p

[pane2k]

i just sandblast with a really fine sand..white sand. Then i goto straigh to the polishing wheel lol..then i clearcoat pc it..comes out lookin pretty good