How To: Polish Tailpipes & Aluminum

that turned out awsome! nice work

 

very nice.

 

SVTurbo job well done.

 

SVTurbo, what polish did you use to polish the pipes. I'm looking to do the same thing with my car.

 

Alright thanks

 

giggity goo!

 

I was polishing my rims on my ws6, so I figured I'd share with you guys on how this is done... My rims were polished probably, 15 years ago, and were never taken car of... This took me about 3 hours for this rim...

Here is what I used...
-1200 grit wet/dry sand paper
-1500 grit wet/dry sand paper
-2000 grit wet/dry sand paper
-flitz wheel polisher on dewalt drill
-flitz wheel polish

1. Wash dirt and grime off. I used a hot water pressure washer.



2. Start cleaning the nasty oxidation and 15 year old brake dust off... I started off with 1200 grit sand paper and wet sanded. If 1200grit doesn't cut it, try something more aggressive. It is always better to start off with something less aggressive and work your way up until you find results that you like... Scotch pads and steel wool also work well in cracks and crevices... Here is a pic of after 1200 grit wet sanding



3. Work your way through various grit sand papers and wet sand... After 1200 move on to 1500 then 2000 and so on and so forth... here is how it should look after wetsanding with 2000 grit



4. Once you reach 2000 I highly recommend you go out and buy flitz metal polish and wheel polish ball thing... DO NOT waste your money on the shitty mothers ball or anything made from foam, they suck... If you decide to spend the money on the flitz polish and ball this step shouldn't take more then 20 minutes... You may need to hit a few nooks by hand...

If you decide that you don't want to blow your money on flitz products, here will be your procedure...
1. Rubbing compound
2. rubbing polish
3. hours of work and sore hands

Here I did the center cap with flitz and left the rest of the rim to try to show a before/after flitz..




And here is how it looks all done




The more work and time you put into this, the better the results... But if you are lazy like me and just want something to look great fast, this is the way to go...

 

nice write up pics of buff pads might help some.

I also use flitz w/buff pad to restore my stock hazed headlights. less that 5 minutes per light.

 

Here is the buffer ball thing I used...
http://www.autogeek.net/flpoba.html

and this is the flitz metal polish
http://www.autogeek.net/flmepopare1o.html

 

my cold air intake is scratched to hell, i was thinking of painting it to match my car but i guess aluminum can be polished

 

I've been prepping a 5.0L H.O. upper intake plenum for polishing... I am going to have to try this on it when I get the really rough stuff smoothed down. Thanks for the info!

 

Alright I'm gunna do this today. Do you polish in between each stage of sandpaper? or just at the end?

 

Just at the end

 

well at least he finially got his answer............ 3 months later.

 

lol... just read it meow

better late then never