Another "I suck at making aluminum shine" thread. Also, dealing with pits?

[240sxguy]

I am polishing wheel lips. I have sanded all the clearcoat off of them, and am wetsanded to 600 grit.

Now, I am getting a pretty good shine but it has a lot of fine scratches. I am using tripoli on a spiral sewn buff. I was fortunate enough to borrow a nice buffer from a buddy (baldor) so I can put some muscle into the polishing process.

It looks great, however when I buff out the tripoli stage with white rouge it really doesn't improve it much. It takes a TON of buffing to start to pull out the tripoli scratches and even then it isn't perfect. I am using a new loose sewn wheel. I am wondering if the old sewn wheel I am using for tripoli isn't actually contaminated with something else.. or so far worn it is cutting too aggressively.

I have been cleaning the lips off between stages with laquer thinner and a microfiber cloth.

I also have issues with pitting in the wheels, it isn't due to bad casting but due to the wheels being old and dinged up from rocks on the street. I may just say screw it, and leave the pits as long as I can get the compound out of them. If I do want to cut alot of material off to remove the pits (more like little dings) can I use black compound and spiral sewn buff?

Thanks everyone, this site is amazing.

Evan

BTW; I have read the tutorials and stickys, which were very helpful.

[Brintiff]

I would start with black compound after the sandpaper, in my opinion tripoli is not nearly aggressive enough. When I do aluminum I use a compound from Brownells to start, it's a 500 grit greaseless, then I go to black and straight to white.

I don't know what it is with the black it's not nearly aggressive as I think it should be, maybe I somehow got a bad batch, the 500 grit greaseless is A LOT more aggressive than caswells black. I'm only using spiral sewing buffs.

[240sxguy]

Alright great, that is very helpful. Maybe that loose sewn wheel I am using for the white rouge is just too soft to do any real cutting.

Also, my other lips are sanded by hand to 320, I have not wetsanded yet. The lips are flat, and I am afraid to put grooves or lines in them. I am attaching photos to show what I am doing. Perhaps the black with spiral sewn is my best bet. I am not comfortable with the greaseless stuff yet.

Thanks!

Evan

BTW; The pits are not very visible in the photos but are definitely there in person up close.

[Brintiff]

Alright great, that is very helpful. Maybe that loose sewn wheel I am using for the white rouge is just too soft to do any real cutting.

Also, my other lips are sanded by hand to 320, I have not wetsanded yet. The lips are flat, and I am afraid to put grooves or lines in them. I am attaching photos to show what I am doing. Perhaps the black with spiral sewn is my best bet. I am not comfortable with the greaseless stuff yet.

Thanks!

Evan

BTW; The pits are not very visible in the photos but are definitely there in person up close.

I didn't notice you were using the loose sewn wheel, even white with a spiral sewn is going to do very little cutting. You are really not using anything aggressive enough to create lines or grooves if you keep the part moving even a little.

[240sxguy]

I didn't notice you were using the loose sewn wheel, even white with a spiral sewn is going to do very little cutting. You are really not using anything aggressive enough to create lines or grooves if you keep the part moving even a little.

Sorry, I was more referring to using the greaseless 500 grit compound. Sounds to me like I am wasting time with loose sewn wheels. I am going to get a couple/few new spiral sewn wheels and try again on a different wheel.

Thanks again for your help.

Evan

[woodjames]

When possible, buff perpendicular to the scratches, it'll be much easier for you to see when they are gone.

[240sxguy]

Alright, well it looks like autosol and a microfiber cloth seems to remove the last bit of haziness. They aren't perfect but definitely good enough for my purposes. Ill get some photos up at some point so you guys can see the finished results.

Thank you for your help.

Evan