I, like the guy polishing up the engine and tranny for his Honda show car, have (or should I say HAD) almost no experience polishing aluminum (or any other metal for that matter) until I discovered the Caswell web site.
Today was my finest hour (lol) in my adventures in metal polishing.
Several weeks ago I blew up the engine on my Yamaha Banshee which necessitated a complete rebuild. While it was all apart, I got a bug in my butt to do a complete rebuild of the thing and either plate, polish or repaint every piece on it.
Welp, today, I finished polishing the engine case with the help of Caswell's fine polishing products and a sacrifical pair of old blue jeans. While it's not a perfect polish, it came out pretty nice considering my lack of experience.
Now that I've spent the greater part of last week's evenings in the garage throwing black dust all over everything, what's the best way to keep this thing shiny? I really don't relish tackling one of these things again and keeping it shiny as long as possible would be a good thing, especially since tomorrow I start polishing carbs, clutch cover and various suspension and brake parts.. I've heard mention of zoopseal, Por-something and VHT clear. What's the best option? Any of these products or just a good coat of wax every so often like I do with my chrome pipes?
How about steel? Just for giggles, I bead blasted a foot peg and polished a small section. Shines like chrome but I'm sure it'd rust in a heartbeat without some type of protection. Would the same protection I'd use on the aluminum work as well on steel???
Thanks!
If anyone's interested, here are some link to pics of the finished product. (I apologize for the poor lighting, it was getting dark when I shot these today) They're pretty big so dial-up users may not wanna look. :)
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Pic 5