Polishing aluminum

[85crownHPP]

Freashmeat!!!!

this qustion is mostly for you - were your valve covers that shiney when you got them, and if not what method did you polish???

First I tried only aluminum wheel polish with little results... then i grabed some 1000 grit sandpaper and worked on the shiney corner for a few minutes. damn! its gonna take a long time to get them shiney like that,
Im afraid to use a dremel sander cuz Im worried It'll come out uneven and Ill wind up digging groves into them.

there's got to be a better way!!!!!!!

[mrltd]

wire brush on a drill, then work with the 1000 grit or a polishing wheel and rouge.

[gadget73]

I'd probably hit the rough stuff with scotchbrite or steel wool and go with finer grades once the bulk of the oxidation is off. If its real bad, brass wire brush by hand shouldn't scar up the aluminum too bad. Steel wire brush on a drill would also do a good job, just have to be careful to not apply excessive pressure or it will gouge the aluminum.

I've always liked those valve covers too.

[p71towny]

Cool covers, and yeah, what they said. Your fingers will be black by the time your done. I personally use mothers.

[DuceAnAHalf]

We knock the high stuff down with 220. then wet sand with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, and a final polishing with metal polish. Takes forever but you get nice results. Id put a pic of the valve covers we did but supermotors is beign gay right now.

[85crownHPP]

well I did a half assed job... not too shabby!
Getting off most of the major stuff revealed some scratches and such in this cover, so I dont think I'll go the whole 9 yards... my car isnt perfect, so why should I expect the valve covers to be???

I went with 400 to 800 to 1000 grit (using wd-40 instead of water) and some mag wheel polish... not to shabby for a lazy job - still took a good couple hours though.
The othe valve cover is the worse of the two... gotta wait for my polishing arm to recover before I tackle that one

[Grand Marquis GT]

Looks nice!

[zwack88]

Wow that is like night and day! Looks great.

[Grand Marquis GT]

I seriously think you should get a wool wheel and some rouge to REALLY make those things shine..

[85crownHPP]

yeah, the more I think about it, the more I want to see what kind of polishing wheels I can get for the dremel....

[grandpaslincoln]

[DuceAnAHalf]

These valve covers were done in the method i said earlier. They are kinda dirty in these pics though. Notice the reflection of the plug wires.