Anything?..Anyone?
When you guys polish stainless, do you use the stainless bars or just the black one?
I think there was a specific type of bar for sisal wheels too…
First off, what kind of parts are you doing?
If you are polishing anything flat…stay away from sisals. They will put more texture into a part than you originaly had.
Tell me what youre polishing and what your goal is and Ill tell you how to get it done.
One piece is a flat piece of stainless, so I’ll take your advice on that.
The others will be steel/stainless or aluminum manifolds. Some plastics also. The goal is a mirror finish.
I’m only doing like 2 pieces a year, just for myself, not starting up a business or anything like that.
get a dewalt polisher. 149 buy it now on ebay! i got one brand new, buffed a part and could see whats behind me! =)
I do have a Makita polisher, but am wanting to use my bench grinder setup for this.
If most of your work is contours or complex shapes I would do all the sanding you can with a DA first then go back and do your other tool work where you cant catch it with the DA. Then go back and use 400 GRIT wherever you can and I would get a tight sewn DENIM buff…8" is about right for most small motors to turn, maybe as small as 6 if you can get into the areas with it.
Id use the tight denim sewn with the STAINLESS (black bar) compound and then immediately change out to a loose sewn cotton buff with FINISHING (white bar) or CHROME (green bar) compound.
Dont waste all day trying to clean over in steps like going from black to brown to white and then green.
The black and white are about all you need.
A tip for you is to invest in a bucket of talcum powder or some corn starch and use that to clean up inbetween your buffing compounds. The biggest mistake people make is not cleaning your old compound off before getting into the finer stuff. It will contaminate your buffs and ruin your work.
Wow that’s a lot of info, thanks!
Can you explain the cleaning with talc or corn powder? I mean, what exactly is done with the stuff?
Sure, basicaly the entire compound bar is oil based. The cornstarch or talcum powder will soak up the oils and make the compound come off in clumps.
Just get your self some CANTON FLANNEL from walmart or something and then cut some squares…Use the rags in the bucket of talc or starch and rub it on the part to clean it. Youll find that there are clumps that are stuck and if you use your fingernail thru the rag with powder you wont scratch your work.
I clean all my polish work like this…When I wax it with aluminum polish eg. MOTHERS and stuff…I rub the mothers on and get it to turn black and then wipe off the excess and buff the residue off with the talc.
An air gun blows the stray off and the cornstarch/talc with the flannel wont scratch your work.
Hope that helps ya out.
I get all mine from my local autobody supply store
Thanks for the info hybridracers, probably more than I need to know but good to know anyway. For sure I’m not gonna be doing this very often.
dualtwill, I’ll check my local store. In the meantime, I’ve found that caswellplating.com is cheaper than eastwood.
Caswell’s site has a pdf book on buffing, they even mentioned the talc! I need to follow my own advice and RTFM!
Do you think, are greaseless compounds worth it?
What about Zoop Seal? Or is it better to auto clear coat to protect the finish?
I’ve done the intake on my 300ZX, took forever…
Not my engine, BTW.
If you did that set of intake manifolds Id say you were on a good start to getting stuff done right. The real proof is in the pudding of course as basic polishing and show polishing is hard to see the difference from 10 feet.
I dont auto clear anything after its polished…nothing really wants to stick to it but some powdercoating and even then its sketchy.
I just hit it with mothers and call it a day. Its a wax so it should be able to keep some water spotting at bay.
oh and I dont care for greaseless compounds…they never stay on the buffing wheel.
Anyone who owns, and works on 300ZX’s is a real labor of love.
I worked at a Z shop for a while. I swear the engineers at Nissan must have said “Hey mom look at this!!” when they made that motor.
Labor is right:mad: I’m a small guy with small hands and even I can’t get them into the engine bay to reach some stuff. The engine is fine, it just wasn’t designed to be in that bay!
Oh well, I hope to sell it soon anyway.
have you guys ever worked on mr2s?? THAT IS HELL!!!
smallest engine bay EVER!
you guys crack me up…try doing a carb clean on a 2000 R1 in flat rate.
Then tell me about small…Motorcycles nowadays are so tight you almost have to drop the engine to do any service work.
My only problem with working on cars is that I made a rule up… I dont like working on anything I cant carry the engine to by myself.
I just wanted to chime in on aluminum polishing. Who knows someone may need to polish up an aluminum mold some day.
I have polished a few aluminum parts over the past several years. The biggest project was a Mustang 5.0 intake manifold…what a job:eek: Hybridracer is absolutely right, never clearcoat over polished metal. clear coat is made to be applied over a lightly scuffed surface, you don’t want to scuff your polishing job. 
I talked to some pro’s who do this on a daily basis. One guy recomended English Custom Polish for the final polishing of aluminum. He polishes out sportbike frames and wheels for a living, along with other parts. He said this English polish is awesome and will retain a brilliant shine for up to 6 months without the need for touch up polishing. You can even wash your parts with car wash soap and it won’t faze this polish. neither will rain water.
It’s expensive though… but imo it’s well worth it. here is a link. Also take a look at their other polish and compounds for metal. There are several.
http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/metalrestorer.html
I’m thinking of buying a small container of the “custom blend” type for aluminum. A few parts on my bike are supposed to be polished aluminum, but are dull and scratched. I need my bike to look good if i’m going to be selling parts locally to friends.
RE: R1 carb clean flat rate. I won’t do carbs for other folks. Toooo much labor and expense in replacement seals and parts. People just don’t understand these things cost a lot of money to repair. I’ll spend 10 hours overhauling my own carbs on my CBR900RR, but then that is my own bike. I hate doing carb work. lol Some think because I am not a dealership i should charge just $100 or so to go through a set of carbs clean them and reseal them for that price… if I we’re “lucky” they’d want me to R&R them on/off the bike for an extra $50. Not.
man what a loooooong post. sorry for that.
Thank you for contributing your expert information on here!
Yeah, good stuff!
I STILL haven’t gotten around to ordering any buffing supplies yet tho:mad: