Scratches & Haze

[tomg552001]

That is 100% true, trial and error is your best friend. Sisal is the most important step in the polishing process, and what skiddz said is totally true. Cut with sisal and black until it has a nice luster, than color (tahts what i do), when you color, really bear into that part especially if you have the power in the buffer which you do. Also, with sisals, little compound often is the trick, where as the others its a little bit more compound less often. Just keep going at it and you'll get desired results. I know when im done polishing a valve cover, i'm pretty sore....friggen total body work out

[tomg552001]

Just to let you know how little compound i use.....it took me about 8-10 months and maybe 10-15 valve covers, 3 or 4 intake manifolds, and a tons more other little pieces to go through a black bar.....some of the guys ive talked to on here use half a bar on one valve cover lol.

[JHFGSX9D]

Originally Posted by tomg552001

Just to let you know how little compound i use.....it took me about 8-10 months and maybe 10-15 valve covers, 3 or 4 intake manifolds, and a tons more other little pieces to go through a black bar.....some of the guys ive talked to on here use half a bar on one valve cover lol.

I can second this !! i did 2 turbos and took only a 1/4 inch off my black bar !! now i did burn up an entire 8 inch sisal using this but thats ok it was user error and i should have stacked my wheels but the area i needed to do wouldnt allow 2 wheels to fit in !! it really sounds as if you need to get away from the Spiral/black !! 90 percent of my time now is spent using the sisal/black i have to say that(now that im polishing correctly) that it is the MOST IMPORTANT step in my polishing !! i dont even use brown i can do enough with the black/sisal that i can go straight to loose/white. this is just me but TomG has been a great help to me and i have to say that he deffiently knows what he is doing !! he has cut my time down by many many hours and my results polishing have gotten better and better !!

[kenykirschstein]

A lot of advice here, thanks.... I went home at lunch and played some more and just got more frustrated. It seems that working with the sisal and black the metal will only get to a certain point of luster just because the coarseness of the wheel, but then again that might me my problem with incorrect polishing action. I think I have the cutting action down pretty good. But I never get a good luster till I go to the spiral and black. It looks like I am getting the scratches out because when you look at the metal at an angle it looks like water, liquid look. What I have left is very fine buffing scratches, but my bigger problem is the metal getting cloudy. It looks like it is under the finish and varies with heat and compounds. I tried the loose and white and I got the same results as before which is a slight dulling of the shine. If I let it generate heat it creates a cloudiness that doesn't come out. I can get rid of the dullness with a quick pass on the spiral and black but the cloudiness still remains. I've spent hours and hours experimenting with this 12" piece of metal and it seems that the more I do the worse it gets and I'm clueless as to what to do to correct it...

[tomg552001]

Are you using 8 inch loose/spiral sewn wheels? Give this a try..if you can. Use 6 inch loose wheels with white. Double stack 2 of them, and see what you get. I never have good luck with anything bigger than 6 inch wheels other than sisal. I of course only have about 10 amps and 3/4 HP to work with. If you have 6 inch wheels, try them.

[kenykirschstein]

I am using loose cotton. I have stacked two giving me 2" of width. I don't have a 6" wheel. I would think that the difference in wheel is just going to give you a surface speed difference which will effect how much heat is generated. So a variance in either size wheel should produce the same results. Should you try to generate heat with the loose wheel?

[tomg552001]

Heat is very important in polishing.....it "activates" if you will, the polishing compound. I use (2) 8 inch sisal's with super sisal emory, dont use brown compounds, and (2) 6 inch loose wheels stacked for the plain white compound. I dont use the specialty whites or anything, from what ive experienced, they stink compared to the good old white rouge. When i use 8 inch loose wheels, i get horrible results aswell, so you may want to try this.

[kenykirschstein]

How wide are you wheels? I can only get a inch and half on my buffer but I can get 2" of the loose.

[tomg552001]

I think they're 1/2 wheels. They're the standard wheels caswell sells.

[kenykirschstein]

When you had bad results with the 8" what was the result. I guess I am still under the impression that the clodiness that I get with the loose and white is the result of something else, probably not polishing right with the sisal and black. If you look at my second picture that is what I get after the sisal and black. It is a dull luster. When I played with it more I still got the same results. I'm hearing that it should look more like my third picture when I am done... If that is the case then that is my problem but I don't understand why that would cause the cloudiness. Like I said the finish looks very smooth.