polished my explorer upper today....pics

[wayne94mustang]

after 2 weeks of sanding off and on i was finally ready to buff this thing....what a PITA

to sand i started with 80 grit and went all the way to 400, using WD-40 as lube.
then today i used my 1hp bench grinder with a 10'' spiral buffing wheel to do the buffing.

i didn't go crazy in places you wont see when it's on the car and there is a few deep casting flaws i didn't get out but over all i think it looks good.

here's a link to my thread about the 2 covers i have for this upper...1 is an fox cover i polished and the other i made at work.

http://sn95forums.com/index.php/topic,39074.msg664105.html#msg664105

 

[sbr420a]

looks good bro. to much dedication for me

 

[OnyxCobra]

dude honestly that looks awesome. Why'd you stop at 400 grit and what did you use to buff/polish it?

 

[wayne94mustang]

i used a buffing wheel on my bench grinder after sanding to 400 grit.

i haven't used any polish on it yet, those pics are how aluminum looks right after buffing with a buffing wheel on a grinder.

you need at least a 3/4 hp bench grinder to make any time buffing, i just about stalled out my 1 hp grinder doing this today. you can lean into it pretty hard so 400 is normally as fine as i go.

 

[OnyxCobra]

ok so you don't buff it with anything to make it shine and take out the sanding marks?

 

[wayne94mustang]

LOL

i used a BUFFING WHEEL.........

it's a cotton wheel that goes on a grinder to BUFF out the scratches....just like buffing out a paint job

 

[OnyxCobra]

guess i'm not familiar with a buffing wheel. I know when you buff a car u don't just use the pad, you have to add polish...

 

[wayne94mustang]

unless your hand bufing paint or metal your using a wheel or pad of some sort.

paint buffers http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/paint-polishing.html

metal buffing wheels http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/metal-buffing/buff-wheels.html

 

[MustangChris]

cool!

 

[Win]

Looks good man.

 

[427danderson]

nice job man!

Now i'm thinking I should be doing this!!!

 

[Paul]

Nice work. Polishing is too much work even for me.

 

[BlackCobra50]

That looks really nice! Good job!

 

[Addermk2]

guess i'm not familiar with a buffing wheel. I know when you buff a car u don't just use the pad, you have to add polish...

unless your hand bufing paint or metal your using a wheel or pad of some sort.

paint buffers http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/paint-polishing.html

metal buffing wheels http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/metal-buffing/buff-wheels.html

what dipshit is trying to ask is... what compound did you use in conjunction with your buffing wheel

 

[wayne94mustang]

guess i'm not familiar with a buffing wheel. I know when you buff a car u don't just use the pad, you have to add polish...

unless your hand bufing paint or metal your using a wheel or pad of some sort.

paint buffers http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/paint-polishing.html

metal buffing wheels http://www.eastwood.com/buffing/metal-buffing/buff-wheels.html

what dipshit is trying to ask is... what compound did you use in conjunction with your buffing wheel

yeah, after i posted that i finally understood what he was trying to say.

on my spiral buffing wheel i only use eastwoods brown (Tripoli or something like that) compound.

it does a good job but for a real shine i use a fluffy wheel with white compound but it's so fine my rough hands or a dry rag will leave scratches. so i normally just stop with the spiral wheel.

 

[CC'S95GT]

YOU have waaay to much time on your hands. it looks sweeet

 

[95-stang]

Nice job, and if you fancy doing any more......................

 

[wayne94mustang]

thanks guys....and no, i wont be doing any more...lol

 

[Lwiss]

looks really nice, u are good!

 

[BlackStallion]

Thats it.... I'm finishing mine now.

I started it but never got very far.