alright ive had my runners and plenum polished for a while and i keep seein pics of peoples stuff that is a mirror and practically chrome! i did a good job but now im not impressed Plenum 220 320 440 600 1200 white diamond polish with high speed buffer, fine scratches and not as shiny as what ive been seein Runners 220 320 00 Steel Wool 0000 Steel Wool white diamond polish with high speed buffer, fine sratches and not as shiny as what ive been seein how do u polish the throttle body? like get into all those little curves and ****? so what am i doin wrong here?

This is what im talkin about

that pic was done with big machinery that does the work for you....but gives aweome results. In order to do the curvy parts, you will need a dremel or die grinder, sanding drums, and soon-to-be-sore fingers. Its a lot of work to do a throttle body, or intake, or whatever has a lot of curves.

The method that the 'mirror' finished is achieved with is here:

-180 grit dry to remove cast.
-320 grit wet to smooth out.
-400 grit wet to give you a satin look (this is the most important part as the more 400 grit you do, the better it will look)
-emery buffing compound with hard wheel
-emery buffing compound with soft wheel
-tripoli buffing compound with hard wheel
-white rouge buffing compound with soft wheel
-then yur done!

ALSO, (IMO and a lot of others)you need not go past 400 grit If you do, you have the chance of glazing over pores in the metal and it will not clean up, meaning that it will be cloudy or dull after you are finished. Some people have gotten good results by going up to 40000000000 grit paper, but the trick is to stop at 400.

ok i just did up to 320 on my rims, rdy for 400. can i pick up the polishing.cuttign compound locally?

Yes, check out home depot and lowes for the compounds. Hell they have the wheels too. They should have all the different steps, I would recommend emery, brown and white.

I'm currently polishing a subframe for a GXSR 600. Here's what I'm using -

- Scotch brite wheel on a drill (to get clearcoat off)
- 220 dry
- 600 dry
- Scotch brite pads
- 1000 wet
- 1500 wet
- Tripoli compound on a buffing pad using a drill.
- White rouge compound on buffing pad using a drill.
- Red rouge compound on buffing pad using a drill.
- Eagle One aluminum polish with a rag.

It looks like chrome and there are NO fine scratches at all. :hail:

The reason why I use the 1000 and 1500 wet is because if you don't, the aluminum will build up under your sandpaper and make a "dull" finish to the aluminum. If you use it with water, the aluminum washes away and it sands without dulling the aluminum.

I hope this helps..

Can some of you all post your polishing equipment? (bench grinder with wheel and custom stand...etc...whatever you use) Everytime I polish I end up working backwards. I let the wheel catch the part and slam it into the bench guard or the table. The worst part of this job is the manual sanding. There's not much out there to make this job pleasant.

My equiptment is -

My hands.
Craftsman electric drill.

:rockon: Muhahahaha thats some of my work :rockon:
Theres ways around manual sanding
My set up that I use when I polish is:
Bench grinder
Die grinder
Sanding rolls
Da Sander
Da sand paper
Polishing wheels
Polishing compounds

Try to find the safe zone or sweet spot where you feel comfortable while polishing on a bench grinder. Polishing the back of the runners scares the livin hell out of me with the way I do the backside of the tubes.

Please help. I just finished sanding my first 88 Iroc rim up to 2000 wet. I tried using a firm buffing wheel with emery compound but for some reason the compound wouldn't take to the wheel. Does the buffing wheel have to be at high speed for the compound to adhere? I thought I had some compound on the wheel and put it to the rim, but all it did was make black burn marks that I had to sand off again. I'm confused on how to actually use the polishing compounds, can someone please explain the procedure in depth? Thanks JOHN.

I polished my TB.....it's forsale by the way.....It's on the classifieds list if anyone is interested....never mind.....I figured out the problem and I used it...I love it!

You gotta take the stick of compound, and slowly press it into the buffing wheel while its spinning. You'll start to see the colors come into the buffing pad and then you're all set.

Hope this helps..

hey 85SportCoupeto89RS~
do you have any engine pics with that stuff installed? good work!:rockon:

I found a pic of them installed, its a little fuzzy and doesnt show everything reall good but this is the only pic I found of bimma's car with his hood up showing off my work Shiney alternator

Hmmm i dunno what im doing wrong but i cant get the emery to go onto the buff unless i heat the compound up with fire.

Maybe i need to switch to a faster drill/ grinder.

Mine looks a little bit better now...

damn fine job 84customZ28. ill have to do mine soon too

:hail:

Nick you gotta press that stick pretty hard into the wheel while its spinning. You'll start seeing the colors of the compound come out onto the pad, and then you're all set.

I'm using a Craftsman drill and its plenty fast enough.

Tell me if that works.

if your seeing black marks appear, thats generally an indication that you are trying to polish the clearcoat. I also use a hand drill max of 2500 RPM's and it did wonders for my TPI unit wich I sold to help pay for my 89' Iroc.

hey easySPEEDcamaro what do you use for your polishing? how did you do the intake?

sanding sanding sanding till my fingers go numb

:hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail: :hail:

...

...

... oh yeah, :hail: :hail: :hail:

All of those look very good.
I tried to polish up my TB, but I need to use the small tools to get into the small areas,

There are actually different wheels...There are some that are loose stitched for final work and some that are tigher stitched for earlier stages. Your wheel might not have the tight stitching. See they will run a stitch around the wheel at different diameters. The ones with more and closer together stitching are the ones you use earlier in the polishing process. I hope I'm being clear. In other words the wheel might not be hard enough for you to apply enough pressure to get the compound to transfer...

or it may not be spinning fast enough to generate the heat needed to trnasfer the compund.

well I pretty much learned from my first rim, so this is my second:





Only real problem areas left are aroudnt he center peice (where the spokes meet in the center). Have some small scratches that i just couldnt seem to get rid of

Also should i coat the rims with a wax or soemthing afterwards?

yes.

alright my TPI set up is all off the car now so went out bought some 220 and 400 wet sand paper and i bought white rouge and jewlers rouge compound (white tube and brown tube) i tryed it out and didnt have great sucess any one wanna help me out i also bought the soft #36 wheel and a stiff #30 wheel so what combo of wheel and compound should i be using HELP IM PULLIN MY HAIR OUT HERE LOL

you dont want the jewlers rouge, it only polishes gold and silver type stuff, start with 180 dry, and sand the casting marks out of the plenum, then go 220 wet, 340 or so, and then 400 all wet. Then take Tripoli on a hard spiral sewn wheel, polish with that, then white rouge on a soft canton buff or sisal buff. When i did my runners, i couldnt get my rotary sander in the tight spots, so i used steel wool 00 then 000 then 0000 then mothers mag aluminum polish like 2-3 times, and the shine matched the plenum. As for the intake I have no ideas

home depot didnt have the tripoli compound damn it

SEARS DOES!

Sears is where we got our too!

sweet looks like im off to sears tonight

I got a freebie aluminum spare i'm gonna practice on before i do the rims on my iroc:

how come my stuff looks like **** when i re wetsanded it to 400 then used the tripoli compound with a stiff wheel and then the white rouge with a soft wheel, the only way it looks half decent is if i put white diamond polish on it, my other wheel i ahve off that is done up to 1200 wet sand i put a coat of white diamond on it with a high speed buffer and it looks 10 times better then the 400 grited rim. what gives????????



i dont think ending at 400 is a good idea, the aluminum looks real scored and not very bright.

I never go above 320 girt and my stuff comes out real good. How many rpms does your wheel spin? And how much pressure are you using with the polishing wheels and how long are you using the wheel and compound? What I usually do is go over the aluminum with the sisal wheel until its got a nice smooth finish and dull shine to it.


I was rereading the thread and just noticed that. Actually it was not big machinery that did all the work for me, I dont wanna spend 20,000 on a machine that can do some of the work itself. What I use is a 2hp bench grinder. Still lots of work involved but as much when hand polishing, no more hurting hands woooohooo.

I tried stopping at 400 grit based on what i read here. And the wheel came out scratched looking also. IM doing it buy hand though no power tools. When I wet sanded up to 2000 it came out like a mirror.

i put my buffing wheels on a wiz tool that goes to like 30,000rpms, but i regulate the speed with the trigger and when the buffing wheel is on the surface its not going very fast. im not pushing down hard at all, medium pressure, if i push down hard itll stop the buffing wheel from spinning since the wiz tool deosnt have much torque to it.

Have things professionally done- Its not worth the effort and end result from do-it-yourself polishing.

i wonder what 85SportCoupeto89RS would want to make my wheels SHINE

I got an aluminum drive shaft this weekend. Its from a 2002 Camaro. I was just sitting there looking at it and thought hmmm...So I polished it. Just with Mothers and it came out great. I will get pick this week to show off! In fact, I have polished my AC canister and lines with just Mothers and it really shined up. I will get pics of that too!

HITHERE dont know if any of HITHERE guys have used 3M perfect it-III but this stuff is the balls! cehck out my throttle body, with NO yes NO sanding at all just the 3M which made it shine like HITHERE mofo then the tripoli, white, jewlers and white diamond polish, also did my hurst t handle as well and it came out really good to, also no sanding.

Yeah, #M's perfect it is good stuff. HITHERE use it when HITHERE buff my car....never tried it on aluminum...HITHERE might have to try that :HITHERE)....did you do it my hand? buffing wheel? drilll buffing wheel?...

i did that with a wiz wheel cut off tool with a buffing wheel attatched to it, the 3m stuff works great and seems to like high rpms.

Looks good!
The reason so many sand on intakes and such, is not because we can't get it to shine otherwise...its to remove the casting bumps. In order to get a smooth surface, like it was chrome, you have to sand off the casting bumps.

Hence in my case the drive shaft and AC lines did not need sanding...they were already smooth...


For those who are having probelms with some items still having sanding lines...I have heard that you have to get teh metal so hot it is alsmost not possible to hold it with your bare hand (too hot) The heat and friction is what does 90% of the work... Also some aluminum is not a good as other aluminum and has sand or other impuraties in it, hense some still having a dull shine no matter what you do!

im well aware of why u need to sand

Just stating it for any newbies, who might be or get confused.

I'm gonna have to try the 3M stuff. I think I might have some...