Advice On How To Polish Aluminium ?

[Guest david_l_perry]

I am after making the engine bay more shiny shiny.......

 

The upper air inlet manifold is a cast aluminium unit that I think would look great polished up - the dull grey part sat ontop

 

 

I know I can have it polished up by en engineering company, but fancy having a go myself.

 

This is what I am after it looking like:-

 

Just after ideas on whats the best way and what I need....

 

The casting is fairly smooth but will need an initial sanding down as the coating is ever so slightly dimpled.....

 

So figured a flexible sanding disc on my grinder would be the best first step.....but what next.....

 

 

Tools I have are hand held grinder (possible to fast for the polishing ?? )

 

Pillar drill that I can adjust so it runs fairly slow - figured that could be the better option to mount a buffing wheel on.

 

 

Any advice.....

 

I have sent a quick email to a company to get a price for it to be done....and if its cheap enough I will just drop it off....but its one of those jobs that I think will be fairly easy if I have the right tools.....

 

 

[agent_zed]

whatever you try i would wear a very good mask, i doubt alu dust is going to be good for you.

 

When i made some hinges i used wet and dry and then finished with brasso and got a mirror finish. I'd prob try a sanding disc (can you get wet and dry?) on a drill for a larger workpiece

[fry61]

Keep the bonnet shut & don't bother --- it's for driving not polishing.

[Guest 2b cruising]

Even to a poor standard will take many hours.

Orbital sander not grinder, Palm sander all the way up to 3000 grit, then Finnish of wth lots more hours with metal polish.

Getting into all the nooks and crannies is virtually impossible.

A specialist polisher of things like this in my area would probably want at least around £250 ish..

Plastic or powder coat in body colour or carbon fibre lookalike will be loads cheaper.

Unless you are entering shows for trophy's, just enjoy driving it.

If you really want it done, take a look around other shows first and look at options.

[Dean Roberts]

Can't you just get it chrome dipped ?

[Guest david_l_perry]

Not interested in entering any shows or comps...but that does not mean I still don't want to be blinded by bling on my shiny toy when I pop the bonnet....

 

When I first looked at the engine change I was planning on getting the parts coated using Camcoat - chrome looks great but would be fairly costly

 

At this stage I am just looking at doing something that wont cost me too much other than man hours and some pads.

 

Its not a 'need to do project' but one of those winter projects I could hopefully have a bash at

[Guest david_l_perry]

Here is the comparison I spotted on another site

 

[Dean Roberts]

^{David...I agree it does look a lot better.}

^{Why spend all that time and effort on the engine transplant and have it look like an ugly duckling.}

 

^{I bet every time you turn up at a show, carpark, pub etc.....the question will be, "what's under the bonnet?"}

 

^{Then you open it up and go, " tada!"}

^{They look, they cringe, then they realise and say, "wow, a V6", "I bet that goes like stink"}

 

^{Time to spend those dark nights polishing it vigorously}

^{Then when you open the bonnet they will need sun glasses.}

[richardm6994]

For cast ali polishing.....if it was me I would begin with a Soft Brass wire wheel or cup to smooth out the surface grain.......then a polishing mop to shine it up.

[Guest mower man]

I have started to polish the inletmanifold , air flow meter etc on the mazda but I think its going to be a long and painfull process but I have plenty of time not sure on the patience ,I suppose I could get some tips from Terry [ tazzman] he is good at polishing mick

[Mitch]

dave I have some mops and soaps, (polish for metals,) come and get em, bought them for roll bar and never really got that far,

 

Mitch

[cb750]

David, I polish relatively small parts myself but anything bigger I use a local chrome plating company for polishing as they are cheaper than going to a polishing only specialist. I think you should take the car or part to the company for a quote as I find that chatting face to face gets you a better price and don't forget to tell them that you only want the visible surfaces polished otherwise you are paying for something you can't see! As a guide I would guess that they would charge you around £80-120 for your part.

 

When I polish parts I remove casting flash with a file then start with 120 grit and water by hand or flap wheels. Be careful as I find you can get flats using machines. When I get down to around 6-800 grit I then move on to a polishing wheel set on a bench grinder. You can get mops that you effectively glue the grit to and use those to rapidly remove casting marks but I can't get on with them

[Guest 2b cruising]

I have an old saw motor as my wire brush/polisher.

With a cast item I would flat it first with a rather coarse wet and dry to stop the dust.

Then as pseviouslt said use a polishing wheel with lots of blue soap on the wheel.

Just keep the work moving to avoid flat spots.

Use a strong enough motor to stop it stalling.

Use at least 8"'wheel then smaller ones for tigh or hard to get at parts.

Or of course, take the easy route.

[Guest Darren2010]

Dave if you get fed up or cock it up!!! Give me a shout, I'll have a word with our polisher at work.

[Guest david_l_perry]

Darren, have a word please pal :-) Let me know what sort of cash he would be after to do it as It's something that I would rather have done by somebody with the right kit if I can afford it ! Ta