'How To' DIY Metal Polishing

[mrbeige 0]

Following reading this thread, I thought it might not be a bad idea to get all the guys on here who have done wheel/engine component polishing to put down and "does and don'ts" and methods, tools/materials and pictures, to try and put together a 'How To'.

 

I polished my rocker cover myself, by hand, but I'm sure there are ways to acheive the same result without losing all the skin off the end of your fingers!!

 

So anyone got any advice?

[vwdeviant 0]

Klicky...

[mrbeige 0]

Klicky...

 

Ah yes, but I think more peoples input would be good.....

[skinnyman9000 0]

Dont let this thread die. A .pdf guide would be excellent, similar to the sunroof ones floating about. Both of which are very useful guys, just incase the authors read this, just wanna say good work with those!

[just_say_meth 0]

I polished the dishes on my rm's, Got a kit from thepolishingshop.co.uk and just worked my way through the different mops till i got a finish i was happy with!!

 

Good torquey drill is useful but not too fast as the waxes just start to stick and go black.

Lots of time!! it takes a while to do properly :lol:

[yeti 0]

I polished the outers on my RXII's by hand and it was a pain but really did give a fantastic mirror'd finish, they were refurbished by BJV Engineering but they couldnt polish them for me so just fine diamond cut the rims and lacquered them, the dreaded water got in though and they started to go cloudy.

 

The process was (i did this without splitting them - possibly not the best way but i didnt feel compentant resealing them!)

 

1. Remove wheel and deflate tire

2. Thoroughly clean and scrub and dirt off wheel and tire and allow to dry (important for marking to stick properly.

3. Mask off any area that you don’t want Nitromorse on, i.e. tires, centres etc with newspaper and masking tape then double up with duck tape as its water resistant and will hold your original masking in place when you're stripping the paint off (its a wet process)

4. Now the most important part of this is you protect yourself so I’ve found Tesco Durable rubber gloves are the strongest to use (also a unisex black colour) and cost about £1.50. Wear long sleeves and goggles.

5. Apply the nitromorse with a toothbrush (again Tesco came up trumps with a tesco value hard bristled one) to the entire area (can work in smaller areas on larger jobs like polishing TT comps or something)

6. Leave for about 15 mins and go check the progress, it should have lifted most of the lacquer off in a crinkly skin, using a bucket of clean water use the toothbrush to scrub the area to remove the lacquer and remove from the surface. (this is a wet process hence the duck taking over all the masking)

 

Repeat 5&6 until all lacquer is removed.

 

7. Now wash down with a scouring pad/sponge and remove all masking, again wash down the entire wheel with a sponge and plenty of clean water.

 

You can now start the polishing! You can ditch the marigolds and protective gear now!

 

8. Providing there is no kerbing on your wheels you can start at 800grit wet and dry, ensure you have a bucket with plenty of clean water – a sunny day and cold beer also helps! Get sanding and do the whole area you wish to polish to this standard before moving on to the next grade.

9. Move up to 1200 and 1600 again do the whole area you wish to polish to this standard before moving on to the next grade.

10, I found this provided a mat metallic finish with no visible scratches so I moved on to the autosol. You’ll need an old t shirts cut into bits and autosol or equivilant metal polish. Basically just apply the polish and keep rubbing and reapplying till you can see your face in it (no really you can!)

 

Then refit the part/wheel and stand back and feel pleased with yourself!

 

You may wish to do the polishing over a couple of days as you do get very tender skin on your thumbs!!

 

Hope this helps

[mrbeige 0]

mk3 yeti, that's some good info there, good skills. Don't suppose you got some before and after shots?

 

Keep em coming..... 8)

[yeti 0]

I'll have a dig around at home then at the weekend when i get some time try and write a wiki on it. tbh there must be a quicker process, each wheel took hours to finish! but at least by hand you have the control not to damage anything

[mrbeige 0]

I'll have a dig around at home then at the weekend when i get some time try and write a wiki on it. tbh there must be a quicker process, each wheel took hours to finish! but at least by hand you have the control not to damage anything

 

How long ago did you do them, and has the weather affected the finish yet?

[Dec 1]

When I was working on the engine parts that start off with a very rough surface the best trick I found was to use a dremel. Just cut out a miniature sanding dish about 2cm wide from a sheet of paper. It's small enough to get into most awkward areas and gives you good control over it.

 

On the engine parts I started off with 240 grit and worked my way up to 800 grit with the dremel. then I wet sanded with 800, 1200, 1500 and finally 2000 grit just to remove any of the 'circular' marks left behind while using the dremel......saves sheds of time this way! No way I could have even dreamed of miror polishing the gearbox completely by hand! :shock: