Removing Scratches And Blemishes From Chrome & Aluminum

[stang_krazy]

bare with me i'm not a good writer! anyway like i said early it's no different then polishing paint. basically the same princapal, you want to remove material to get rid of the scratches or blemishes. when i first started out i sanded all paint or rust from metal down to the bare, and started from there. learning from mistakes and trail and error, finding old wrenches, or any kind of rusted metal parts to practice on. finally i got lucky or the right combinations and started getting scratch free mirror like finishes, and of course i'm still learning different ways and faster results. it's like everything else in life you never stop learning. anyway just like painters and polishers the first step is always the most important, i'm talking about the cleaning step, thats where you take out all the imperfections you don't want. i start out and glass-bead the part if it's in really bad shape and needs total redo! (like rusted , scratched , or just nasty!) then i sand or wet-sand part to the smoothest i can get it. (THATS WHERE AND HOW YOU GET RID OF THE SCRATCHES , CURB RASH , AND THE WHAT NOT'S) now the buffing begins. depending on what type of metal i have. say it's aluminum. i start off using #2(hard metals) and the spiral-sewn wheel, taking the compound and rubbing it against the buffing wheel (while it's on and running) and grab the piece i'm working on and lightly touch it against the wheel using maybe 10lbs pressure( just like polishing paint you'll get the feel) and start buffing/polishing the piece. polish until you start getting a shine back.(it's important for the part your working on to heat up that's one way of the compound to do it's job) again you'll have to get a feel for doing this step in getting the part hot, but not to hot. anyway when you get the results from this step you can do 1 of 2 things. grab another wheel like the canton flannel and #5 (light polishing) or get another spiral-sewn to use with the #5 and repeat the polishing with that step.( i like, and have good success with using the same type compound with different wheels. when working with really soft metals or aluminum) next step would be #6 (high gloss polishing) and get another canton flannel wheel, and repeat polishing. also you'll have to play with different pressures, because of different type metals and heat ranges playing a big roll. another trick is to use baby powder if your part starts to haze or have black streaks from to much compound, just dampen the part with water and splash a little baby powder on it and use a different wheel again to buff off haze before next steps. now a little important info, touch your compound to your wheel for only 2 to 3 seconds no more, after a couple times of loading your buffing wheel use a screwdriver to remove old compound (just rub across face of wheel) important note; be very careful with this step and when polishing metal it can and will pull your fingers n the spinning wheel(OUCH!!! IT DOES HURT FOR HOURS) also hold part just at or below center of wheel. thats were you get the best shine! also buffing against turning of wheel helps cut faster, and buffing with turning of wheel helps with the polishing.i'm running out so i'll post back with just getting a scratch out of a exhaust tip or rim lip. any question i'll answer soon as i can .. thanks ...DANIEL

[Tim Lingor]

Thanks for the write-up Daniel :)

When you say #2 Polish what are you using, a white, black, green, rouge polishing bar on the wheel?

Tim

[stang_krazy]

sorry i couldn't finish every thing and really don't know how to post threads , but i'll get on with it . anyway if you've got just a scratch or blemish on rim , exhaust tips or trim all you need to do is get a astro-pneumatic in-line buffer along with some spiral-sewn and loose sewn shank mounted buffs and go about it the same way. work on what needs fixed, like you are using scratchX on paint. start out with some white rouge and the spiral-sewn buff , if thats not strong enough use some tripoli. when your done with the area go over it with some metal polish . i also like to go over it again with #21. don't know if i've help or not but i tried to. when i can figure out how to print pictures on with a thread i know i can make it better. HERES SOME MORE INFO ABOUT THE COMPOUNDS . you can get it at lowes; it"s made by MIBRO theres 6 different compounds #1 is hard materials> for removing burrs , corrosion and scratches. #2 is hard metals>for regular cleaning. #3 soft metals>regular cleaning of surface imperfections and tarnish. #4 precious metals>for initial cleaning of precious metals. #5 light polishing>initial polishing and light cleaning of all metals. #6 high gloss polishing>just a final polishing. done it again! maybe one day i'll learn all this computer stuff.. na probably not , anyways i tried

[stang_krazy]

2hotford i'm talking about the mibro brand from lowes, i do use the 20 oz bars of white rouge, tripoli - is brown in color, emery- is black in color, stainless- is also white in color, jewelers rouge- is red in color , but i've had to come back to the mibro brand to get the hazing and streaking out of some of the different types of metal , aluminum , it's funny mibro is like meguiars in the sense of me knowing the numbers and what the products do and can get done. anyway hope i've made some sense of removing scratches from metal... BY THE WAY I FORGOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE LITTLE STORY (ha!ha!)i wrote i didn't make my self clear about the buffer i'm talking about it's like a bench grinder , but it is called a buffer that takes 6'' or 8'' diameter wheels