Newbie-What did I do wrong?

[Pavway]

Hi to all, Just found this great site ,hopefully in time. I have alot of window and door trim to polish from an early model bronco. Its all aluminum,fairly thin, and was very dull, I found it was anodized and had a company de-anodize it for polishing. Its all in good shape, no dings or bad scratches. I purchased a polishing kit from Eastwood years ago and thought I would give it a try. After reading some post here I know I made some mistakes but now looking for advice. I started with Tripoli and finished with white rouge but failed to clean metal when moving to the other buff. First piece looked good but second has a coating of what looks like dull scabies in an area that i can't get off and afraid to buff too hard. Did I buff too long or too much compound? Whats the Right Procedure? Hope attached picture shows it. Sorry for the long post.
Also if I get it all polished do I need to have it anodized again or will keeping it waxed work.
Thanks - Paul

[mpierich]

Hi to all, Just found this great site ,hopefully in time. I have alot of window and door trim to polish from an early model bronco. Its all aluminum,fairly thin, and was very dull, I found it was anodized and had a company de-anodize it for polishing. Its all in good shape, no dings or bad scratches. I purchased a polishing kit from Eastwood years ago and thought I would give it a try. After reading some post here I know I made some mistakes but now looking for advice. I started with Tripoli and finished with white rouge but failed to clean metal when moving to the other buff. First piece looked good but second has a coating of what looks like dull scabies in an area that i can't get off and afraid to buff too hard. Did I buff too long or too much compound? Whats the Right Procedure? Hope attached picture shows it. Sorry for the long post.
Also if I get it all polished do I need to have it anodized again or will keeping it waxed work.
Thanks - Paul

Well even tho that's a pretty good picture, photos are probably insufficient for me to figger out what's going on there. It almost looks like there's still some kind of coating on there. Otherwise it might be simply a manufacturing flaw. I've seen it in some castings where the metal cooled at different rates.

Try going over that area with some 1,000 - 2,000-grit sandpaper very lightly and see if that evens out the surface, then go back to the tripoli/white.

If the car is mainly garaged and you polish it properly, you can keep it nice with an occasional wipedown. If it's out in the weather some kind of coating would probably be OK, although I'm not generally in favor of coating a polished part.

[Pavway]

Thanks for the reply, I will try the fine sandpaper and see if it will come out. It seems like its on top of the surface because you can feel it when you drag your nail across it.
Paul

[jrow]

Pavway,

It almost looks like the anodized coating wasn't completely removed. I'd try some 320 - 400 grit wet and dry sandpaper and then use your tripoli and white. 1000-2000 grit is not going to give you much bite.

John

[Pavway]

Thanks jrow, I will give that a try.
Paul

[mpierich]

Thanks jrow, I will give that a try.
Paul

Just be careful if you go that coarse.

1000 would be fine for scrubbing it off, or even a fine Scotchbrite pad. If it doesn't work for some reason then go coarser. The general rule is, don't use anything more rough than what you really need.