Polishing my belt guard

fourbarrel

fourbarrel

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St George,New Brunswick,Canada
I can't ride my sled so I may as well polish it up and I'm having an issue with the belt guard on my 01 SRX. I've used about 3 different aluminum polishes so far now and while it's definitely better than what I started with I still don't have that mirror polish to it. All I seem to be doing is showing more and more scratch marks in the cover,I think I'm going to have to wet sand the thing and try to get it smoothed out better. I'm using a mothers power ball too but still a lot of scratches showing in the finish.
 
I've had good(not great) luck with Mothers mag and aluminum polish on a 4 1/2"grinder with buffing wheel from menards. It splatters everywhere but does and ok job. Aftre wiping it down, I wax it as this stuff has barley any protection. I'm still looking for something better too. I tried 0000 steel wool, not good.Never tried sledbrite or chemicalguys stuff.
 
2x on that aluminum mag and wheel polish. I used it to do my clutch guard, back part under the rear grab bar and part of my secondary. Worked pretty good
 
I've used Mothers,albeit an older can of it,and while it did give the guard a nice luster I'm still not quite at that mirror polish yet.It's all the small scratches that are showing up now that I'd like to get rid of.
 
I bought one of the polishing kits from Canadian Tire a couple of years ago and it has a variety of wheels and different polishing compounds in it,I may try the white compound or even jewelers rouge and see if the scratches will disappear.
 
google search zephyr, this is where I get all my buffing/polishing supplies, those scratches need to be sanded out, I usually sand to like 400 grit, then use a yellow primary wheel with brown rouge, gonna need a good buffer, I use a industrial angle grinder with my wheel's, then go to a purple wheel, with green rouge bar, then move to a white wheel with white rouge, then a final hand polish, it's a ton of work to get professional results, and very dirty/messy job, but when your done it will look better than chrome, them mother power balls are fine for a final polish, after the hard work is done, you will not get a mirror look like you want just using that alone, good luck:bling:
 
Did you try wetsanding yet? thinking of this myself but not 400 grit, maybe start at 600 or 1000. I'd try tomorrow but busy on other stuff.
 
Viktory2k1 said:
Did you try wetsanding yet? thinking of this myself but not 400 grit, maybe start at 600 or 1000. I'd try tomorrow but busy on other stuff.
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viktory2k1, you are right, I posted that wrong, I start with around 400-600 grit, on deep scratches then finish around, 800-1000 grit, then get the wheel's out
 
Yes I wet sanded it already,all I could get at the local auto parts place was 1500,2000 and 2400.I Still need to go over it a couple more times with my polishing wheels on my drill but it helped quite a bit.
 
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How did it turn out, didn't get that far yet. I think I bought the same sandpaper pack you did. 1000 1500 2000 2500. I small sheet of each. Maybe start with 600 and work through all grits. 2500 should be like a mirror you would think.
 
I think it would be better if I had used an orbital sander instead of doing it by hand. But I'm hoping that whatever marks and dullness will come out with a couple more rounds with the polishing wheels.
 
I was just screwing around with the sandpaper on my old motor. This is dry sanding because my bucket of water froze. I started with 600, then 1000,1500,2000,2500, and then mothers. This was on coolant manifold. Turned out like chrome. Then I started to do the tunnel. Just a small part. You have to go finer then 1500 for mothers to work. This was all by hand too. I'd say 2500 and then mothers if doing by hand. 1500 would still show scratches after the polish. I still want to try that chemical guys compounds to see what happens. Yes, a DA sander would help. Took 1/2 hour to do an area like 3" by 3". And this is an area with no rivets to go around so I wont even touch around the rivets with less then 1500. I will finish sand with 2500 and then try the compounds with my da polisher with wool blend bonnets. Or just use mothers and call it a day. We may get snow this weekend so if I'm going to do this, I'd better start tomorrow. You know what might work really good? Not sure what you call them but they have triangle heads and you can sand with them and cut a nail in half with them. Both sleds are pretty much ready for testing so maybe I will do this. Its gonna suck but at least 1 side of tunnel cant be that bad, can it? I found any aluminum polish I tried just removes the oxidation so you need a very nice surface to begin with. What are you using for polishing wheels? Size also?
I will post results if I get ambitious enough for this. Just have minor wiring issue on wildcat to take care of. (tach and tach light quit working)
Finished my bodywork today!

I just read sleeved cyl thread and you mentioned Bacardi. I was a beer guy. That would be the perfect thing for polishing the tunnel, lots of beer. I haven't had a drink in 6 months now. Still want to but was hospitalized twice in 2014 from it. Probably could have gone more had I known what the problem was. Mass gut ache that would last for 3-4 days and then just go away. I thought it was food poisoning. Turns out it was acute pancreatitus. Worse pain I ever had, suppose to be way worse then a bad appendix.(never had that). I could drink again but I don't ever want that pain again. Last time in hospital I was going into shock from the pain. 5 IV's of morphine didn't even help but 3 IV's of something else took care of the pain but was there for 5 days. Nice watching 4th of July fireworks from hospital window. I was getting bad though, 18+ beers a day everyday. For 20 years. Not as much at first but over the years, I drank more and more. I have no idea what made me write this. Probably just the thought of polishing the tunnel is a good beer job. I guess I'll be wet sanding "dry".
 
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hand polishing and orbital tools are not what you want to be using. polishing aluminum to a mirror finish it very easy with rouge and buffing wheel. you need a pedestal type with the clothe wheels and work your way up with different rouge grits. trying to polish with wheels spinning in a circle on a flat finish just won't due. fine for painted stuff not so much for raw aluminum. just my 2 pennies but i've done many a polish jobs as a fabricator
 
Good info Pete. I've got it! I have been using my Makita 4" angle grinder with a backing plate and polishing wheel. What I am trying to do is polish aluminum like a mirror in a very short time because it sucks. Went to menards and bought 4 more polishing pads and they have those sliding shelf things so I slid it over and behind it was all kinds of different polishing wheels and then I saw it. 1 "tube" of emery compound and 1 "tube" of tripoli compound. Looks like a giant tube of chapstick. Spent maybe 45 min on both sides of tunnel and then used mothers. I didn't do the foot boards but check out this pic. This is 25 mins not counting the 1000 phone calls that kept pouring in.
I agree about the tools pete72 used but trying to do this cheap and no snow. Do they make a polisher thats portable, small, and uses just the edge like a pedestal?
This is with no sanding and you gotta put some good pressure on it to make it work. I used both "grits" and then mothers by hand. This stuff actually does something but very hard to get off and it makes your polisher have good traction. I rode up the seat about 4 inches so be prepared. Don't go near decals. Takes care of smaller scratches with ease. Stuff is like $4 a tube and the wheels are $5 for 2. It doesn't splatter everywhere too. I know it could be much better but check it out. I know its a little smugey. Ran out of rags.
Look behind the last a in yamaha on seat, oops.
 

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Viktory2k1 said:
Good info Pete. I've got it! I have been using my Makita 4" angle grinder with a backing plate and polishing wheel. What I am trying to do is polish aluminum like a mirror in a very short time because it sucks. Went to menards and bought 4 more polishing pads and they have those sliding shelf things so I slid it over and behind it was all kinds of different polishing wheels and then I saw it. 1 "tube" of emery compound and 1 "tube" of tripoli compound. Looks like a giant tube of chapstick. Spent maybe 45 min on both sides of tunnel and then used mothers. I didn't do the foot boards but check out this pic. This is 25 mins not counting the 1000 phone calls that kept pouring in.
I agree about the tools pete72 used but trying to do this cheap and no snow. Do they make a polisher thats portable, small, and uses just the edge like a pedestal?
This is with no sanding and you gotta put some good pressure on it to make it work. I used both "grits" and then mothers by hand. This stuff actually does something but very hard to get off and it makes your polisher have good traction. I rode up the seat about 4 inches so be prepared. Don't go near decals. Takes care of smaller scratches with ease. Stuff is like $4 a tube and the wheels are $5 for 2. It doesn't splatter everywhere too. I know it could be much better but check it out. I know its a little smugey. Ran out of rags.
Look behind the last a in yamaha on seat, oops.
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looks good! ya know harbor freight also makes a 2 1/2 wheel kit 1/4 shaft with rouge for like $3.99 might be just the nuts for the tunnel polish with a 1/4 diameter die grinder. keep up the nice work viktory
 
Everything I buy at HF seems to last as long as the ride there. I betcha that pad disintegrates (if your talking air powered) as soon as die grinder is on.
Looks great but if you get close enough, you can tell not much attention to detail. I did clean it up better today.
 
mother billet is good, or use their stuff made for the power ball. I have had pretty great results with them. got any pics?
 
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