Polishing the tunnel

I am experimenting different ways to polish the tunnel. After some reading, I came up with a set of 8" pads and 3 different compounds(cant remember the name but rouges). I was using my 4 1/2" angle grinder, now I got out the big buffer. Its a Makita 9227c that I use for cars(not sleds). I bought some bench style polishing wheels so I could use the edge of pad and not the flat part. The problem is that to polish aluminum, you need 6000rpm. My buffer is variable speed but max rpm is 3000, it will work for what i'm doing but if I wanted to really get into this, I would get a 6000rpm one. All the materials were bought at menards so not the best variety of polishing stuff. I did not sand as most places on net said you have to do but I am doing the tunnel and too many rivets. I figured some pretty harsh compounds should do the trick. Its still a little smudgy but I'm getting there. One thing is with an 8 inch wheel, its very easy to make an oops. I would recommend taking the seat and plastic cover off rear bar, I caught the seat like 5 times trying to avoid the decals. These were not airway style wheels, just sewn cotton ones. I didn't do the foot boards, their good enough for now. Still needs touching up around rear mounts and seat oopses. Nothing like CB performance but for cheapo menards stuff, not bad.

Looks good!!! I used the same process on the aluminum tunnel on my 03 RX-1. I found it took too much maintenance to keep the tunnel polished and looking good.

You're lucky if you get 2 weeks! I am looking into something to protect it. I think I found something from Chemical Guys. Now I am using their Black Optics sealant and while on there website, I found something else but cant remember the name but really expensive. I did clear coat the skid rails which the swap should be done this weekend. That has the brushed look (like its supposed to). It was very oxidized when I got skid and had to use acid on it and 180 sand paper working finer until I had the rails where I wanted them. I'll look up that chemical guys stuff and post.

looks great!

I just redid it today from the skid swap mess. Thanks

What you have done looks great! But won't last long if you ride much. I have used a bunch of products on tunnels and rails, after two or three weeks you will need to polish again! If you ride the sled do your self a favor and do it after each riding season or not.... I still keep my garage art polished but not regular sleds that get used.

Yes, I noticed. I used a chemical guys sealant on it called Black Optics. Seems to protect it ok. Better then wax but I still do it once every few weeks. I like doing that kind of stuff. I will see what it looks like after storage. I cleared the skid when I did the swap so that should last a while. I polished up all the aluminum on the John Deere last year and didn't protect it with anything except what those aluminum polishes claim to have and when I took it out this season, couldn't hardly tell I even did it. I redid it though. Once it get them nice, it doesn't take much to bring them back.