Trouble Polishing these Aluminum parts

D

Danspeed1

New member
Hello,



I am attempting to restore this 85 Honda Magna. I am having a really had time getting the fork tubes, cylinder heads, and engine covers polished. Some of the parts are pitted, while others have some sticky substance all over them. They look horrible bottom line. Top Bright and 200MPH Polish aren't helping. How do I tackle this job and make these parts look polished?



Dan

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you probably will need to do some wet sanding with various grades of sand paper for starters . . . . . finishing off with some agressive and finishing polish for aluminum to get that nice polished look.



Hopefully someone else will chime in but that would be my best guess.
 
What kind of finish are you after?



If you are using consumer "metal polishing" products then you are not going to achieve much other than removing some surface oxidation and hairline scratches from the surface.



If you want to restore it back to its mirror finish, then you will need to step sand the surface and then machine polish the surface to a mirror finish.



I had my food-grade stainless intercooler pipes polished to a mirror finish and it was an extremely long process. Not something you would want to perform as it is an extremely tiring and dirty job.
 
Yea, I really don't have any good products when it comes to chrome, or aluminum. I haven't done a bike or an old car in a very, very long time... we're talking about 5 years. And since the only thing to polish on most the cars today is the exhaust tips, my arsenal is lacking these products.





I have Top Bright (its like Wenol), 200 MPH Metal Polish (its a Harley Davidson Polish), P21s polishing soap, Never dull, and some mothers billet polish... that's it.



However, my grandfather was a jeweler and still has a full buffing wheel setup with the different colored rouge bars... would this work?



I am not looking for a billet look, just looking to clean up the massive oxidation that is on all of these parts... and make them look a little brighter. The only part I would consider working over is the fork tubes, as I know they look great with a billet like polished look. The rest of the parts just need to look good.



Dan
 
Yeah buffing wheels are what my contracted metal workshop uses. But the final polishing stages are still done by hand.



The jewelry polishing wheels may be too small or delicate for your needs.
 
Those metal polishes work nice to clean up a previously polished surface. To get them there you will need the correct compounds, buffs, bobs and wheels. Deep scratchs, pitting, leveling and such will require sanding or the use of a greaseless abrasive. Caswell's site has everything you need and some good how-to's and forums on polishing.



If you are trying to restore the bike, completely tear it down. Normally, if it wasn't polished to begin with it would not be once 'restored' so it sounds more like you are just fixing it back up!



Once you have the bits all polished up, wax, clear coat or a product like zoop seal will reduce future maintenence.



Another option you may want to consider is tumbling. Just give it a Google.
 
I believe the dull silver finish on the fork tubes indicates they are anodized -- not much you can do to polish that without removing the anodizing, and I can't help you with that one. Check with the manufacturer to be sure what finish they are.



For the hard-to-get-to areas that are polishable, try a Mothers PowerCone.
 
I'm pretty sure those parts have a clear coat on them. The valve covers look like they have some clear coat failure going on to me.
 
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