Just for the record i'm not totally in the dark about this. I've polished metals many times. But this is one of the finer details of aluminum i've never been able to get perfect. Once the metal is glass smooth i have tried simichrome, mothers, and blue magic metal polishes, and the results look great in the right light. very chrome like but with a richer look. But the issue is this....just like with car paint there are ultra fine swirlmarks in it that never come out no matter how much i polish it. In the right light you can't see them but in certain light it's very obvious just like with swirls on paint. It's as tho what i'm using isn't a fine enough abrasive. Is there a trick to this i'm missing or a product that will definatly remove this to a great degree?
Polishing aluminum
- Thread starter dazco
- Start date
reparebrise
New member
Optimum metal polish
reparebrise
New member
Having used NUvite and Rolite, both are vastly inferior to Optimum. Concerning your final swirls it's mostly pad related, and not product related. IF you are in So cal look up Superior Shine (Superior Shine Mobile Auto Detailing, Creating shine since 1989, WE COME TO YOU!) he can get you the products and pads you need to obtain the results you are after.
Daniel3507
New member
what pad do you use for optimum metal polish
Well, while waiting for a reply as to where to get it cheapest i was researching the subject and decided to try mothers billet polish. I never bought it because it OTC and figured i need the absolute best. But i had a gut feeling because how could mothers sell it at 3 times the cost of thier mag and aluminum polish in a can thats about 1/3 the size unless it was truly much better? It's been around for years so it must be good at that cost or it wouldn't sell. But i gotta say, it did the trick perfectly. Got rid of the swirls and it looks like friggin' chrome. Really nice. Sometimes a gut feeling is worth listening too. I also tried it with a cloth wheel and a dremel on some parts i could get to and it's even better. Unlike BM, simichrome and mothers mag and aluminum polish which all create worse swirls if you use a dremel or rub hard. This one just gets better and better the harder you go. I'm done !
dazco said:
No it won't. Nothing will, atleast without the proper application.
The trick is the right pad/product/machine.
For me, that's using a cyclo with fleecewraps (and black pads) - even on a 'hard' metal such as t6 6061, if I try rubbing Nuvite S in by hand, i'll have fine cut/grain marks. Only way to get rid of them completely is with the buffer.
Just like on a car - let's say you wetsanded some MB nanohard clear, then compounded it, then tried final polishing it by hand - you arn't going to have that much luck, regardless of product selection.