Stuart Bollen wrote:
All you guys out there with metal working experience, any tips on what
attachments I should use to polish up my valve covers and intake manifold?.
They are heavily oxidised aluminum castings.
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Stu - forget about using a Dremel Mototool. You need a benchtop or
pedestal mount buffer with horsepower (LOTS of horsepower - say 1/2 to 3/4
hp) in order to properly do the job. Eastwood Company sells a Baldor buffer
for about $200 that works great but is expensive.
I took the decidely less expensive route. Since my old little 4 inch bench
grinder was pretty wasted anyways, I went to the local Home Depot (Orchard's
is fine, etc.) and bought a new 1/2 hp, 8 inch Delta benchmount grinder.
Then I ordered from Eastwood two spindle adaptors from their catalog (about
$7.00 each), took off the grinding wheels and guards and for less than half
the price had an equally good set up. You can order the buffing wheels and
compounds from Eastwood, too and their prices aren't too bad, but they are a
bit on the high side. By shopping around you'll probably save about 10 to
15 percent. Eastwood also sells a buffing "kit" that contains 2 eah of 4
different wheel types, 5 different compounds, a face shield, gloves, and a
video tape on how to properly buff parts.
Some tips - make sure the parts are thoroughly clean before buffing. Wipe
down with lacquer thinner. Use a fine file to knock down any flashing left
over from the casting process, then use some fine emory cloth to further
knock down rough spots before you start buffing. Otherwise you'll end up
with a lot of very pretty flashing on your otherwise pretty manifold. For
heavily oxidized aluminum, use the fine emory cloth all over first (don't
worry about scratches, the buffing removes them) to get rid of the crud and
the little white film, then forget about going to Tripoli compound right
away as it is not aggressive enough to do the job. Go with Eastwood's
stainless steel compound first (it is dark gray in color), buff it up all
over with a spiral wound wheel. Before switching to a loose wound wheel and
the Tripoli compound, wipe the entire piece down with lacquer thinner again
to get rid of the remaining s.s. compound. Then buff with Tripoli and
finally hand buff with Simichrome polish. Volia!
For the little nooks and crannies go ahead and use the Dremel, BUT you'll
probably burn out the motor. I'd use a cordless drill if you have one, as
it has a lot more power. A Dremel is handy, but simply won't do the job as
well. I have buffed damn near everything under the bonnet of my Spitfire,
including some base metal pieces and it really makes a huge difference in
the overall appearance of the car. Good luck.
Ross D. Vincenti
64 Spitfire 4
64 Porsche 356C Coupe (next project)
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