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Polish Wheels

cowboyup3371

cowboyup3371

Forum Guru
Past Site Supporter
After polishing with each of the compounds, my wheels are turning black. I first used the black compound, switched wheels and put the red and white on a different one yet both are like this. Am I doing something wrong or is this to be expected?

polishwheels.jpg
 
I use white compound on white wheels, they turn BLACK.

The black is aluminum oxide, which is what you are removing from the aluminum, so it is to be expected. :D

Now, ... skip the pictures of the drills and wheels, let's see before and after shots of what you are polishing. :p

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Steve said:
Now, ... skip the pictures of the drills and wheels, let's see before and after shots of what you are polishing. :p

.
Click to expand...

Before pictures are in my projects thread, after pictures will have to wait until I can paint:D. I hope that will be tomorrow as temps will be in the upper 50s to low 60s but our winds will be 40mph sustained with gusts to 60 so I'm not sure:(.
 
These are looking better than before but I'm not so sure yet. Pushing harder when polishing is good or bad?

Before
Shocks.jpg


after polishing

forklowers.jpg
 
Hey Scott, its like Steve said, expect the buff to go black, just remember, never use the same buff for different componds, each colour has to have its own buff.
Wheels looking good, yes I second that, get some paint on there and stop teasing us.
Quite honestly, you can do better on the forks, the trick is sanding all the way down to at least 600 grit, 800 even better, it is time consuming and a right royal PIA, but the results are worth it.
scratches are what kill the shine, so if you sand them with 320 grit and then hit them with the buffer you are wasting your time.
The buffer will not remove the 320 grit scratches, thus poor shine.
However the buffer will remove 600-800 scratches, so you need to get right up there, took me 4 Sundays to do mine, working at a relaxed pace.
 
Square wheels. Heh. That goes right up there with ejection seats on helicopters and screen doors on submarines.

What do you do when a polish tank is mounting an attack on you? Shoot the guy pushing it.

Yes Scott. Pressure, and patience. Let the compound do the work. Sanding helps, as does stripping case covers and fork legs of their clear coat with aircraft stripper prior to sanding and polishing. Careful with that stripper, it's pretty caustic stuff.

I go beyond 800 when I polish, from 800 to 1000 to 1500 then polish if you really want to shave in your reflection.
I've also found that the brown compound before the white help remove tarnish stains in the Alu. Must cut a lil deeper or something.

Your drill will take more time, but a air powered DA grinder works faster.
 
I know money is tight but even a used grinder is easier than the drill.Yeah a dedicated polisher with the extended spindles for the wheels are better but my grinder works just fine most of the time.
 
Thanks folks. I'll go back to work on the forks tomorrow then. Four Sundays huh? I guess that means about 8 for me then with the fantastic job you did.:D
 
Nah Scott, more like 3 for you, I really chill when I work on Jennifer, spend more time eyeballing her and drinking beer and jiving to the radio, I swear if you saw me you would think I am mad, my fat ass doing the locomotion with wrench in one hand and a cold frostie in the other must be a scary sight to behold, but hey, its therapy for me, me in no rush.
How are the ribs doing, I would imagine you must be all about right as rain by now.
TCK is right, the finer you go with the sanding the more the bling, you can go right to 2000 grit if you want, I am far to lazy for that, not going to happen, and 800 gave me good enough results, so I am happy.
I used red rouge on mine, I guess you could call it brown as well, which is the medium one and does a good job of removing the sanding scratches, again, if you want ultra high shiny then finish with white afterwards, which is the fine compound, again, I didn't bother.
All my polishing was done with my drill and attachment like you have, it works just fine, I can't afford a polisher.
 
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Ribs themselves are healed now it's just getting the muscles back in gear. Physical therapist is having me rubber band exercises but I need to find a better place in the house to attach it.

Thanks for asking.
 
Scott, one thing I learnt with my polishing was to wipe it down with metho between each compound, otherwise I found the oxide would just build up and up and up.

It also helps a little with cooling the pieces between compounds too.

I didn't go for a mirror shine on my case covers or anything, so I didn't sand at all, just cutting, buffing, and polishing compounds with sisal, stitched rag, then loose leaf calico wheels on the bench grinder.
 
Metholated Spirits....I assume, comes from living upside down at the bottom of the world, blood goes to the head. ;)
 
So denatured alcohol (thanks Google). I'll see what I can do then. I wonder if paint thinner won't work the same way then?
 
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