cloudy sections

[crazieabe]

sometimes when polishing aluminum, I get white, cloudy sections in the finish. I can hand polish these parts out, but what causes it? What am I doing wrong?

[mcaswell]

It's likely compound residue. There's lots of posts about this problem here already....take a quick read.

[crazieabe]

How do you suggest getting all the compound off before moving to the next compound?

[saiyan7]

Well Crazieabe,
I'm no expert but, I use mothers polish in between all buffing and polishing steps. I use water between all sanding steps. I'm not so sure that the cloudiness is leftover compound. C'mon CASWELL that was a quick answer, not that i'm doubting your knowledge of the trade. I have experienced the same thing, and no matter how much buffing you do it seems to linger like an annoying rain cloud. I have had to go back to the last sanding step and start the buffing steps all over again. Could it be that we are seeing the porous nature of the aluminum in those areas and we have polished to deep? Crazieabe, i noticed that you are polishing sportbikes, therfore you understand the fact that the finished product must be perfect, and i mean perfect. These are big pieces of aluminum CASWELL, so every imperfection is noticeable. Anyway, to answer the question, I think that i have had the best results when i have done the least amount of work. in other words the more material you take off the more porous the aluminum becomes the worse your job looks. I hope this helps and please don't flame me CASWELL, i'm just trying to liven the forum up with a little debating. Remember that if we have found this forum then we are serious about polishing and we want the real secrets.
thanks

[crazieabe]

Hi SAIYAN7, thanks for jumping in on this one! It is nice to know that I am not alone in the "clouds" Also, I polish semi trucks, sportbikes, and anything else I can get my hands on... It doesn't matter what I am polishing as long as it's aluminum, it always clouds up in certain areas whenever I polish with more than one compound. I have noticed that it does this more with the coloring compounds more but I have seen it happen with just tripoli! PLEASE HELP

[crazieabe]

I've heard you can use diesel fuel or kerosene to clean surface between compounds. Is this true? I think it would be way more cost effective and much less time consuming than hand polishing inbetween different compounds. What is everyones input? Also, if the white, cloudy areas are infact polish buildup, wouldn't hand polishing just contribute to this? Post up guys...

[crazieabe]

I guess this is a slow forum? Maybe I stumped some people? Anyway, I did try the kerosene and let me tell you, works way better than any hand polish for the inbetween coumpounds...but to finish a product of I still hand polish when finished cutting/coloring...

[saiyan7]

Hey crazieabe, is this kerosene getting rid of your cloudiness entirely? Maybe i spoke too quickly and CASWELL was right about the compound buildup making the clouds. Well i'm not prideful. I can be wrong frequently. And yes this is a slow forum. I think it might be because there is tons of beginners and only a few accomplished polishers. Caswell is being bombarded with questions over in the metal plating section so we take a second seat.

[mcaswell]

Have you folks tried using Flitz to remove the cloudiness? Compound residue seems to be the likely culprit, especially if kerosene removes it.

Remember to apply very small amounts of compound to the wheel at a time.

[crazieabe]

I currently use all sorts of polish but have never used flitz! How does it compare to other polishes on the market? By the way, in my opinion, mothers sucks!