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Polishing aluminium

Started by V-SLR5000-P , Sep 19 2007 01:20 PM

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247 replies to this topic

#51 _Herne_

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Posted 09 February 2008 - 11:07 AM

Hi Guys

I just spent around 5mins polishing some bolts. The results are very pleasing

Stainless Steel Buttonhead bolt before polishing:

Posted Image

And after:
Posted Image

A couple of general pics showing what I used.
Posted Image

The time taken to polish each bolt was about 1 minute! Well worth the effort don't you think.
I have yet to hit the bolts with Purple polish.

Cheers
Herne

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#52 TerrA LX

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Posted 09 February 2008 - 01:30 PM

https://cache.gmh-to...lbrownbuff1.jpg
Is it much trouble converting a bench grinder from a double ended one ( like the right side of this one) to the mop like this one on the left?

Edited by ALX76, 09 February 2008 - 01:31 PM.

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#53 _Herne_

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Posted 09 February 2008 - 02:04 PM

Jeremy is away for a few days, not sure if he has access to here or not, but I asked him about adapting a bench grinder to a double ended polishing tool. His answer was you just buy the adapter from Bunnings at the same time you buy the actual polishing wheels.

BTW no tightening tools are need to swap the buffing pads as they are just hand tightened on the tapered adapter.

Hope that somewhat answers your question

Herne

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#54 _Brewster_

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Posted 09 February 2008 - 04:47 PM

Encouraging stuff Bomber, that really turned out well.

However, I have a question to ask in regards to polishing items of a cooling nature, i.e. ally radiator header tanks, oil sump, tranny sump, thermo caps, air inlet manifolds/plenum chambers and piping..

Does polishing these items affect the way they work? As in, the rough cast is there for a turbulance effect so the air cools it better, much in the case with the sumps and radiator. I've been told that polishing stuff like this can make a difference to the overall performance of the engine. Any thoughts? Cheers

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#55 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 09 February 2008 - 06:13 PM

Actually to be honest i thought of that to.

Basically, it looks pretty, and i have a nice big aluminium radiator coming my way so its not gonna be that bigga drama.

Realistically the amount of cooling from teh thermostat housing would be officially f*ck all, i really cant see a problem.

Cheers.

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#56 _Brewster_

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Posted 10 February 2008 - 04:50 PM

^ I agree with that surface area being too small to make a difference, but what about the surface area with the engine sump and tranny sump? They are much larger surface areas.

Its kind of a similar argument when doing head work. I've always been taught not to polish after porting, otherwise, it negates the turbulance effect for the air to mix with the fuel properly.

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#57 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 10 February 2008 - 05:10 PM

Yeah i agree with the head ports thing, i have been told that to.

As for polishing an engine or transmission sump, well both of mine are steel so i cant.

Realistically, i know bugger all about the subject, i just know how to make bits shiny not the adverse affect it has on performance.

But, i do believe if i had alloy ones i would paint them. If it was an all out show car then it definitely wouldent make a difference, and they would be polished, but with a bit of a performer like im trying to build i dont think polishing would be the best.

But wait till i get my alloy radiator, im planning to polish the tanks lol.

Cheers.

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#58 _Brewster_

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Posted 10 February 2008 - 05:22 PM

Thanks for that Bomber, I hope you didn't feel that I was personally asking you those questions as it was intended for anyone else. I'll start another thread on the topic, it might attract the attention I need to answer the question.

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#59 Toranamat69

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Posted 10 February 2008 - 05:36 PM

If you have an adequately designed cooling system you will have no issue with the minisule effect that polishing will have.

Polish away till your blue in the face. :spoton:

Bomber, that may have only taken you half and hour for that thermostat housing but I reckon it will take another 3 or 4 hours to finish it properly.

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#60 _Herne_

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Posted 10 February 2008 - 05:37 PM

^ have you ran a pump with the ribs removed before? Does it create any problems?
I thought the 253 was sold?

Jeremy wrote:
ALX76 I have run a water pump on my old motor like this and have one for my new motor and it runs a 471 supercharger and have had no problems
After all the water pump only job is to move water not cooling

Brewster that question had been previously answered by Jeremy in this thread.

There will always be those for and those against.

You decide.

Cheers
Herne

Edited by Herne, 10 February 2008 - 05:38 PM.

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#61 _Viper_

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Posted 10 February 2008 - 11:59 PM

"Bomber, that may have only taken you half and hour for that thermostat housing but I reckon it will take another 3 or 4 hours to finish it properly."

What do you mean finish it properly? looks pretty finished to me?

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#62 Toranamat69

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Posted 11 February 2008 - 09:07 AM

Viper,

The front bit of the flange, the corner bit where the bolt goes on top are still pitted and the hard to get bit on the back between the bolt tower and the main body hasn't been done.

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#63 smeer

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Posted 11 February 2008 - 09:21 AM

what are those white and brown Josco blocks? appologies if I missed them in the thread.
Where can I buy em?

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#64 FastEHHolden

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Posted 11 February 2008 - 10:00 AM

I call them rouge....and you can get them from Bunnings for about $10 a block.

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#65 _Herne_

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Posted 11 February 2008 - 10:00 AM

Hi Smeer, Yes they are mentioned earlier in this thread

You can buy them at hardware stores like Bunnings and I am told they are called Rouge blocks. The Brown is for a heavier cut and the whit is for a finishing polish.

Edit, Fasteh was faster than me lol sorry

Cheers
Herne

Edited by Herne, 11 February 2008 - 10:01 AM.

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#66 smeer

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Posted 11 February 2008 - 10:58 AM

thanks a lot gents.

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#67 _j7723_

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Posted 12 February 2008 - 07:38 PM

sorry guys am in vic at this time polishing dose stuff all to heating or over heating as it dose not grate heat and most of these items move water not cool water

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#68 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 06:31 PM

The front bit of the flange, the corner bit where the bolt goes on top are still pitted and the hard to get bit on the back between the bolt tower and the main body hasn't been done.

Yep, spot on. Theres more imperfections but i dont expect you to spot them through photo's. But i tell ya what its bloody well good enough for me.

Im going to take those comments in relative jest, but remind me never to pop the bonnet of my car for you. You will have a field day pointing out the three wires that you can see (covered in convaulted tubing), the unsmoothed seams, the orange peel on the paint in the nearly impossible to get to sections and the spanner marks on the four or five bolts in the car that arnt replaced with stainless ones yet. Thats before you even get to the polished stuff!!!!!

No Summernats top ten stuff here guys, i just thought some people might be interested in seeing an easier way than hand sanding everything.

Mind you, i payed very very good money to get some stuff professionally polished before i decided i could do it myself, and low and behold, none of the corners are done still pit and scratch marks etc etc etc.

Cheers.

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#69 _Viper_

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 07:20 PM

It looks bloody awesome to me Bomber, im sure if you really wanted to put the time in getting into those extremely hard spots you could.. But who sits there and stares at ur car in that much detail...

Obviously if you were going for a top stop at summernats or something its this attention to detail that gets them top spot...

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#70 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 08:22 PM

Doesnt look toooo bad on the motor. Bit out of place atm, but when the polished carbies are hanging off it it will all blend in a bit nicer

.

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#71 Toranamat69

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 08:35 PM

Bomber, I wan't meaning to have a go, My point was just that you can do 95% or the surface by machine in a very short time but those fiddly concave bits which must be done by hand is where all the time is.

Yes I am a phsyco when it comes to polishing - probably why it takes me so long to bloody finish anything.

I would not pick on your car if I saw it at a show, it pissed me off when smart arses do that - especially when something is clearly a work in progress. I would be far more likely to look for good ideas to steal and ask you questions about how you did things and where you got parts from.

I hear you on getting stuff polished by polishing shops - they do the minimum they can to get your $$$. At least with polishing you can just get stuck into it again if you want to go further and just buff it up again and away you go.

Any reason you didn't remove the cylindrical bump on the very top of the housing?
The more I polish things the more brutal I am getting about shaping things down to the bare minimum and removing extra little tabs and bumps - anything like that which can be removed, also removes extra corners that need to be done.

M@

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#72 _Brewster_

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 08:37 PM

Mind you, i payed very very good money to get some stuff professionally polished before i decided i could do it myself, and low and behold, none of the corners are done still pit and scratch marks etc etc etc.

Thanks for the handy advice, love your work!

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#73 _Bomber Watson_

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Posted 13 February 2008 - 08:54 PM

Toranamat, no worries man, im trying to quit smoking so im a little EDGY atm.

The cylindrical dome at the top didnt get removed cause i couldent take it out. it is cast in, from the bottom you can see it to. so if i had taken that off i would have had a very big hole. I to wanted to get rid of it. I asked the pars place if they had any or could get any without it, but they coulent. I'll find one without it one day and polish it up and stick it on!!!

Cheers.

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#74 _greenmachine215_

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Posted 21 February 2008 - 08:06 PM

Just found this thread, good work guys,

I have a mad fetish for polishing, Pretty much anything alloy....I will polish
Have heaps of pics of things ive done and will post more at a later date,

This was my last big job,
Injected 5.0L Manifold i removed all the casting, excess alloy, Injector cover mounts, opened out the front runner, and spend a stupid amount of time on this only to sell it for $500 :cry: