Polishing MC gas tank

[Shawn60]

I'm just looking for advice. I plan to start with spiral sewn wheel with emery, then tripoli and finish up with loose cotton with white rouge. Any words of wisdom, different wheels/compounds?

that is about the same set up i use you need to wet sand up to 600 grit then go to town

[Shawn60]

What grit should I start the sanding with 320, 400?

i start off at 180 then work my way up ... if the metal is in good smooth shape after being striped i put 320 on my da and sand it... you may be able to stop right at 400 then go to the compound depending on how good you got it ...

[Shawn60]

I got all the way through to using the tripoli compound before deciding to start over. It was starting to become obvious that it wasn't going to get that mirror finish. I had started with 150 grit so I took it one step up with 100 grit. Got rid of a lot more scratches that were present on my first attempt but I did this one totally by hand, no sanding discs on a drill. It's better but it is still not quite as shiny as Syco's job is in the polishing tutorial. He mentions using an orbital grinder with a sanding disc and a palm sander but the gas tank has recessed, concave areas that I can't quite get a 4" sanding disc into (besides, it was the reason for having scratches) and the palm sander won't work either, it's flat. I am doing the sanding part totally by hand, is there any other way to do this other than by hand or is this where patience, endurance and lots of elbow grease come into play?[img][/img]

get a flexible sanding block ... you can bend them all way's ... load it with paper and sand it til you get a smooth surface ,, then move up on the grit.. once you get to say around 400 grit you should have a dual satin look.... ( when sanding say with 300 go left to right then with the 400 go up and down..but do it with all the grit's ) when you get a nice smooth surface double stack 2 sprial load them with black and go to polishing you want to do it in the cut motion ...you will get a nice mirror shine clean your part... hot soap and water will work ... double stack two new or clean sprial's load it with brown .. repeat the cut motion till you get the tank done ... clean again rake out you wheel's load again now this time go in the color motion till you get a nice shine .... clean you tank again put on a cardboard cut out about 4" load 2 loose cotton on and load with white go in the color motion til you get a highluster shine ....the more time you spend with the black you will remove alot of your scratches that are left over ... the reason i put a 4" cardboard circle on with the loose cotton is to keep the wheel's from folding over to much ... if you want you can get some cotton wheels from caswell the one's that have one line sewn in and use the white on them then clean your part again .. and use the loose cotton and load it with red and go over it the red is moreless just a polish and has not cutting action to it ... it will bring out the shine in your part...
then more you do it the better you will get and the faster you will get .. if you need any help feel free to email me or give me a call .. all my contact infor is on my webpage... www.customandsound.com .... good luck

when storing you buff's i put them in plastic zip lock bag's so they do't pick up any other thing than the coumpound i just put on them ...

[Shawn60]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll give the sanding block a try, didn't even think of that. I've got one sitting somewhere in the garage...unless the wife cleaned up

[Shawn60]

I've got the spiral sewn and a loose cotton wheel being delivered today from you. I had picked up a finger buff and a smaller diameter cotton from local stores but ended up using the finger buff with the emery. I bought it by mistake and was planning on using it for the tripoli, your site says this is an aggressive wheel. Really appreciate the tips. Hopefully, with a little more work at I'll be sending you those pics you've been asking for. Wish me luck

you got all that stuff from caswell... i don't work for caswell .... i own my own company and i spend my free time helping other out with there polishing and what not problem's .... i am also a happy caswell customer to ...post your pic in the album at the top of the screen ... and let everyone know what caswell product's you used to do your project....