I’m trying to clean up some turbocharger compressor housings and am looking for a quick way of getting the nasty oxidized look off of them. I’m trying to stay away from mechanical means because I don’t think I want them to look polished (that’s easy enough to do, just takes time and it wouldn’t match anything else).

I’m betting sand or bead blasting would work if I had access to a blaster…

Any ideas?

 

Bead blasting will give you a very even clean looking finish for a very short while. Then the porous surface you create will get dirty, greasy, grimey as all get out. I would just stick to a commercial aluminum polish to remove the oxidation.