Polishing Help

[Jack Palmer]

im trying to learn how to polish metal. specifically my intercooler. my friend suggested using a dremel but those damn little, expensive pads keep rotating off the screw bit and seem rather un useful since they cover almost no area of work space any time quickly. i have noticed though that with my drill and 4' polishing pad i am seeing results. i wouldnt call it a mirror finish by any means but it does look better than before. i am using jewellers rouge stick as recommended by the store. any tips or suggestions would be great. if i can get the hang of it down i would love to tackle much more polishing projects. thanks guys.

[DarrylDhaliwal]

I did mine and it looks sweet, Wet sand with very fine sand paper till u feel no bumps and get some mother aluminum polish and get a buffer and buff it to a shine

PS: when i did mine i used 800 grid for the first half and for the finish i used 1200 and then polished it

[Kimyee Lai]

Darryl's got the key thing to making it a "mirror" finish...lots of sanding down.  You have to take it through a few increasingly finer grits, finishing with a 1500 or so.  I typically use a 2000.  

As I mentioned in a post a while back, I used the 3 articulating disc sander from CT, works GREAT for polishing.  The dremel is only meant for tight corners and spots.  I've never had very good luck with the rouge sticks.  I generally use a felt pad and paste metal polish like mothers.  

Here's some more info to read up on if you want to get more in depth
http://my.tbaytel.net/jstudio/finish_and_polish.txt

[John Hartman]

AutoGlym makes a REALLY REALLY great metal polish.  Go find a local rep and grab a small bottle.

I detailed full time for 6 years and for 4 of them I was either the shop foreman or the manager, so I tried countless different ones.  Some were good, some were crap and then there was the Autoglym stuff.  It really was better.

Not to say all of thier stuff is great, nor do I get any cuts off sales etc, I am just trying to help.