Best way/stuff to polish aluminum

I'm wanting to shine up my windshield frame , anyone know of any good stuff to use ? Anyone ever use this stuff ?

<http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/general.html>

Looks lke good stuff, but never tried it. I got a new windshield today, and plan on polishing my frame too with stuff I am famialar with. Im going to try Brasso first, then if that doesnt please me, go to Mothers, Then to jewelers rouge. I may use 1000 or 1200 sandpaper first if I have to.

Someone around here polished the cr@p out his frame. Came out great. ...maybe John Moore??

Dwain probably knows. He polishes stuff no one will even see! :D

I sanded mine the clearcoated it with stuff from Eastwood:

Thanks everyone.

Depends. How bad is it now? Is the annodizing starting to come off in places? Are you ready to spend some time and elbow grease on getting the rest of the annodizing off? It has to go before you really polish the frame.

After that, are there big nicks in it? If not, then do you want a mirror finish or a mill finish closer to original?

Say Gary, I don't think Brasso is meant to be used on aluminum. I could be wrong but it seems to me that the surfaces and of course the compositions of the two metals are completely different.

I'm sure you are right Jim but try some Brasso on some scrap polished aluminmum if you have some handy. I promise you will not forget about it next time you want to polish some.

If you want to loose the anodization you just about have to sand down to plain aluminum. Then if you use regular polishing methods you can get it to a mirror like shine. (This involves buffing compounds and polishing wheels or some sort of buffing pads.) It's lots of work and you will have to put some sort of finish on it from time to time.......

trucker supply places have plenty of this. Mothers also makes some I've used on wheels

I use 'Simichrome Polish' on all my polishing. In a tube.
My 69 Mustang GT had small pits in some crome. With a little elbow grease, I've
found that Simichrome will take the pits out too.
Kevin in NC

If the annodizing is starting to flake off then you have to take it the rest of the way off, there is no other way. Any thoughts of polishing methods and materials has to wait until the removal of the annodizing is addressed.

There are two methods; sanding, as Dwain suggests, or the Easy-Off method. Both require a good bit of work.

CederholmC Wrote:

Heating the aluminum helps to keep the polishing compound, rouge, etc. on the wheel and to not cake up on the metal. I use a heat gun to keep the aluminum above about 100 deg. F. It makes the polishing go a lot faster.

anodizing is easy as dipping it in it for 15 min, then washing with water, we have it at work. now, about aquiring some... its an acid, so it may be hard to find...

PM Paul Slice (Pauls). His looks great - in fact I was talking to him about it at a club meeting a couple of months ago.

My best results in keeping my Triumph Bonneville engine cases chrome like brite was using Mothers aluminium polish. I did it by hand & rags but I know it does work with power wheels. Once you have the rag/buff wheel saturated you can moisten it with mineral spirits to keep going & get the most shine and lessen wasted polish.

When I did my windshield frame, I only sanded it with fine paper, and then hand polished to a dull luster to replicate the original anodized look. When I saw John Moore's I regretted not polishing to a high shine.

I'm gonna try Mothers first , I think . The polishing wheel I already have so I think I have a weekend project pretty soon , I might even post a before & after pic .

Thanks again everyone .

I used 1000 grit sand paper to get the anodize off. Then just use some polishing wheels with first a rougher cut and work your way down to a very fine cut. Don't mix and match the wheels though, one wheel per grit.

I polished mine to shinier than chrome!

It takes some time. The problem that you will now face is oxidation, aluminum oxidizes just like steel.

You must cover the raw aluminum once it's been polished. Either powder coat it in clear or what I did was get the POR15 clear coat for Metals, but it must be done RIGHT AFTER the polishing is complete, DO NOT WAIT. Any finger prints or even air will start to tarnish the aluminum immediately.

I love the look!

Brian

Hey Bman, how long ago did you do this polish/seal thing and how's it holding up? I was thinking that if my frame was that bad it maybe better sanding to bare aluminium then getting it Black annodized so to minimize glare.