Newbie here, and as you may expect, I come with questions.

[berad001]

Hello everyone, I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am to finally have found a forum about metal polishing. 3 weeks ago I decided I was done shelling out hundreds of dollars to get my motor parts polished. I'm looking for as much advice as I can here. The first thing I've polished is a spark plug cover seen below, but I?m having some issues. I've searched the site and done an immense amount of research, and I just can't seem to remedy the problems I'm having.



Firstly I stripped all the paint off this piece, second I sanded from 80, 180, 300, 400, 600, then wet-sanded 1000, 1500, and 2000. After that I used emery on a 6" spiral wheel coupled to a 5000RPM hand drill, then Tripoli, then white, then red. For the life of me I cant seem to get all the scratches out, and I'm having issues with hazing. What can I do to remedy this situation? I've tried going back and wet-sanding the scratched areas, but as soon as I take the emery compound to the area the scratches reappear. No matter how hard I try I always have areas of haze also.

[customandsound]

good luck .... but what i can tell from all i read is that you went to far on sandind the emery gets caught up in the fine marks .... i just did the fuel rails on my gtp and they came out mirror which that is what i wanted ... i did a set of valve covers from a 95 camaro with a horseshoe in take and i did the sanding thing i got 1 nice but not what i wanted but the casting marks are bad on the valve covers 3.4 liter motor .... i am in the learning stage myself so it is all ne to me to ....... good luck

[berad001]

good luck .... but what i can tell from all i read is that you went to far on sandind the emery gets caught up in the fine marks .... i just did the fuel rails on my gtp and they came out mirror which that is what i wanted ... i did a set of valve covers from a 95 camaro with a horseshoe in take and i did the sanding thing i got 1 nice but not what i wanted but the casting marks are bad on the valve covers 3.4 liter motor .... i am in the learning stage myself so it is all ne to me to ....... good luck

So where should I stop sanding? 600?

[customandsound]

i stopped at 400 on my intake and it is going good so far .... try a part with the 600 and if you still get the muck in the marks drop down a grit ...

[bhhodges]

i know this may sound simple but are you using a different wheel with each compound. your wasting your time sanding with any higher grit above 600 as well


bill

[customandsound]

i got 2 wheels for each compound ..... and i use sanding disk and flap wheels for sanding

[gopedhead]

i have the same damn problem, i hate it so much, i was told to use greaseless compound. this is a sandpaper that cuts the metal very deep without scaring it like sandpaper. i have never been able to remove haze or the scratches.

[customandsound]

like i said it takes time to get it down ..... i been lucky so far but i only do alum..

[berad001]

Interesting feedback so far. I messed around a little tonight and as said, sanding over 600 is a huge waste of time. In terms of hazing I've tried to remedy the situation by cleaning the piece with aluminium polish after using the emery, doing that reveals hazed areas. So I mark off those areas just by adding a little more polish over the area just as a marker, then keep using the emery compound until the areas polish up to match the rest of the piece. Any more feedback would be great.

~Brad

[skiddz]

I think 400 grit is where you should stop with the sanding. Anything more is (IMO) a waste of time. A sisal wheel, black emery compound and a firm hand will do the job from there. I spend about 80% of my time polishing with the above combo. I've found once the parts really start getting some heat in 'em, the compound really starts to flow and the blemishes just disappear.

Today, I bead blasted an aluminum brake lever from my 4 wheeler. Normally, I'd wet sand with some 400 grit to get rid of the 13+ years of nicks and dings (not to mention the blasting marks) but today I just dove in with a sisal wheel and some emery compound. In about 40 minutes, with some hard pressure against the wheel, I had *all* the blemishes smoothed out and I could feel the heat through my nomex gloves.

10 minutes later, I was looking at a seriously shiny brake lever that had been covered in faded, chipped and scratched black powdercoat an hour before.

I've found hazing will go away with a loose cotton wheel and white compound. Cut with it 1st to get the hazing gone, then color.

Everyone's got their own technique. I've been trying different things for weeks now and still don't have a perfect system. The brake caliper I do tomorrow could come out like ****. ehehhe

Keep at it and good luck!