Polished some aluminum under the hood today

jay87lx

jay87lx

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I really like the look of the polished clutch cover and exhausts so today I decided to do mine- Tell me what you think. I know you cant see from the pics but there is one "streak" that i am gonna get out tomorrow but i think it came out OK
Prior:
sled039.jpg

Cleaning the aluminum first with acid
sled040.jpg

All cleaned with the acid and dried- actually looks good like this
sled041.jpg

all polished up
sled044.jpg


sled045.jpg


For you guys that have done this... when you did the exhaust did you remove the covers from the pipes or just do it with them on?
 
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Looks Great... I'm gonna do the same thing...Idea's like that are what make's this a Kickass website... Thanks for the Idea!!!
 
I did not remove my covers, I just did the pipes with the covers on. Sure, may be a couple spots where I could have done a bit better, but my sled isnt a show girl, I dont have people looking under the hood all the time. When you open the hood, it looks awesome, and you can also see it shine through the hood vents.

One tip though. Find the spot where your hood cord( the cord that stops the hood from opening all the way) sits on top the the exhaust. Put some sort of tape/rubber wrap around the metal cord, because it will scratch the top of the nicely polished exhaust!

I found the smallest guage of gas hose I could in clear, put a large section over the cord, and it worked great, stopped the scratching.
 
What do you do with the melted plastic and rubber on the pipes?

Waters88 said:
I did not remove my covers, I just did the pipes with the covers on. Sure, may be a couple spots where I could have done a bit better, but my sled isnt a show girl, I dont have people looking under the hood all the time. When you open the hood, it looks awesome, and you can also see it shine through the hood vents.

One tip though. Find the spot where your hood cord( the cord that stops the hood from opening all the way) sits on top the the exhaust. Put some sort of tape/rubber wrap around the metal cord, because it will scratch the top of the nicely polished exhaust!

I found the smallest guage of gas hose I could in clear, put a large section over the cord, and it worked great, stopped the scratching.
Click to expand...
 
It is hydrofloric acid or aluminum cleaner- My dad used to drive tractor trailers so he bought it by the 5 gal buckets for the aluminum wheels. you spariy it on and it foams right up cleaning the aluminum. Then I scrubbed it around a bit and rinsed.
I used a 2 metal buffing wheels. A yellow one (more aggresive) in my bench grinder and white one on a buffer. You can buy the different polishes or "rouge" at sears or a place that sells the acid. you start with a aggresive polish the step down to the finishing- I beleive there are afew threads on it in here already
 
when i did some polishing, wet sand/scrub with 0000 super fine steel wool, the more you do with the steel wool the easier to polish, then i used mothers on a flitz ball on a drill, really not that hard if your only looking for a qwick polish
 
are you sure it was hydroflouric acid? that stuff is really bad stuff, super dangerous. could it possibly been hydrochloric acid? i just want to clarify, because that clutch cover looks bad ***!
 
kuips said:
are you sure it was hydroflouric acid? that stuff is really bad stuff, super dangerous. could it possibly been hydrochloric acid? i just want to clarify, because that clutch cover looks bad ***!
Click to expand...
yes, its Hydroflouric
 
the hydroflouric acid in the wheel cleaner is a very low %. but yes still wear the gloves and glasses. as a pipefitter i work in a lot of computer chip plants which use HF to etch the silicone in the chips. usually around 50%. at that strength it doesn't take much to kill you. it is drawn to and reacts with calcium so if you get it on you and it reaches your bones before you can nuetralize it you're taking a dirt nap
 
Stagg is absolutely correct, I work with hydrofluoric acid in a lab which builds advanced semiconductor devices. It is a very dangerous chemical. Even in low concentrations you should protect yourself from exposure to it. Stay away from using it!!!
 
Waters88 said:
I did not remove my covers, I just did the pipes with the covers on. Sure, may be a couple spots where I could have done a bit better, but my sled isnt a show girl, I dont have people looking under the hood all the time. When you open the hood, it looks awesome, and you can also see it shine through the hood vents.

One tip though. Find the spot where your hood cord( the cord that stops the hood from opening all the way) sits on top the the exhaust. Put some sort of tape/rubber wrap around the metal cord, because it will scratch the top of the nicely polished exhaust!

I found the smallest guage of gas hose I could in clear, put a large section over the cord, and it worked great, stopped the scratching.
Click to expand...


I relocated the hood cable spring so that when the hood is closed the cable is pulled away from the pipes.

As WBC mentioned, I used steel wool to clean up any scraches before polishing.
 
snomofo said:
I relocated the hood cable spring so that when the hood is closed the cable is pulled away from the pipes.

As WBC mentioned, I used steel wool to clean up any scraches before polishing.
Click to expand...
I thought about doing that very thing too,where did you hook the spring to?Got a pic by any chance?I'm sure I'm not the only one that would be interested in this.
 
fourbarrel said:
I thought about doing that very thing too,where did you hook the spring to?Got a pic by any chance?I'm sure I'm not the only one that would be interested in this.
Click to expand...


I don't have a pic handy but can snap one tonight. I believe I moved it to the outside of the clutch fresh air scoop which requires moving the cable around the scoop when opening the hood. It's about the only place I could find that would keep the cable off the pipes.
 
fourbarrel said:
I thought about doing that very thing too,where did you hook the spring to?Got a pic by any chance?I'm sure I'm not the only one that would be interested in this.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure if you can make out where the hood end of the spring is bolted but I used the outer attachment bolt that attaches the black cover that covers one of the openings in the PTO side of the hood. When opening the hood the spring will want to end up on the top of the fresh air scoop and somewhat bind when the hood fully opens. I just flip it under the scoop before opening the hood all the way.

The second pic shows the lack of scratches on the painted pipe ends (refinished them last year). I think I put a twist or two on the spring before attaching to the cable so that when closing the hood the cable twists taking out some of the slack.
 

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