Cool project!
I'd be concerned about driving near it on a sunny day, though!
I have not seen the final results in the sun yet as it was raining at the end of the day we did the buffing. My guess is the van looks better in pictures than in person. I think we could have performed one more polishing step and achieved better results but to be honest - I could tell everyone's energy level was dropping off fast. Polishing aluminum is a lot different than polishing paint. There is no forgiveness with aluminum. Paint is a lot more forgiving.
Amazing project and results! That thing looks like a mirror!
As mentioned in one of my previous posts,
When rlmccarty2000 said this,
rlmccarty2000 said:
Free class or “help I got a ton of aluminum to polish”?
I came back with this, note the portion I made
BOLD RED
Mike Phillips said:
So yeah, this is a hard job but it's also a skill that some people want to learn and this Saturday, free of charge, they will have the opportunity to learn and then possess both the knowledge and skill on how to do this type of "craft".
They will also then have the experience and the knowledge to know when to take on a project like this, free or paid, and when to be smart enough to turn it down. That's value in and of itself.
Me? I don't think I'll be taking on any aluminum polishing projects in the future except my aluminum frame leg.
Mike I got a laugh at the end of the video where you said you always keep you leg “shiny”.
It's true. I disassemble about once a month, clean it, lubricate the bearings and re-assemble it. The knee unit I have is no longer available in the United States. Hasn't been available for over 10 years. To my knowledge it's the ONLY POLISHED ALUMINUM knee frame on the market, or more accurately, used to be on the market. I actually contacted the manufacture myself and asked them to remove one of these frames from the assembly line before they ANODIZED it either black or green. I told them I wanted to polish the frame to look like chrome. They agreed but only if I agreed to let them void the warranty - to which I agreed. They sent me all the aluminum parts, this was back in 1995, over 20 years ago. After polishing the dull aluminum to look like chrome I shipped the frame and parts back to Europe where the company assembled the knee frame and hydraulics and shipped it back to me. I ordered one more a couple of years later in 1997. (The frames have date stamps on them).
I'm a car guy, and a boat guy so I naturally like polished metal versus not polished metal. Most of the artificial legs or more specifically Knee Units or Knee Frames are dark, or black and in my opinion very UGLY. I don't want to wear an ugly leg. So all these years I've learned how to rebuild and maintain my polished aluminum "Ultimate Knee". And anytime I'm going to travel or attend events, I will polish the aluminum so it shines like chrome. Often times it's dull due to the chemicals WE all work around, for example when I spray wheel cleaners, tire cleaners a lot of time some overspray lands on my leg and leaves spots or dulls it down. So yeah - I polish it all the time so it looks good. Kind of like most of us here on this forum polish our cars so they look good. It's a pride in your workmanship thing....
Nice to see an unfortunate event hasn’t slowed you down one bit and you have a great attitude about it. You truly are an inspiration to some.
rops:
Thanks Jim.
Probably the most rewarding thing I hear from people is when they find out I have an artificial leg and see what I can do, (detail cars), they say something like,
Well if you can do it I can do it too
So that's a nice thing to hear...
This was a fun and very dirty project.
Whenever You are doing any project like this make sure you have tons of Microfiber towels!!! I really like the Wolfgang fine aluminum polish that we used, It worked very well!
Thanks Mike
Thanks for working so hard Dan!
Mike would you please post a link for the pads that should be used with each of the Wolfgang products.
I have all three of them compound,polish, and concourse. It would be nice to know what you recommend.
Thank you.
Yes - behind the scenes working on some hot projects and prepping for my 8 classes at
Mobile Tech Expo in a few weeks but I will add the links to the products used.
Beautiful job.
I never thought about using PBL Wheel Coating on other metal surfaces. I’ve been using it since it’s intro and I get a full year of protection on my wheels. I’ll have to try it on exhaust tips and engine parts.
Like I mentioned, I checked with Rob the Harley Detailer and he said out of everything he's tested this coating is lasting the longest. He actually said it was lasting so long he's seeing a decrease in return customers. Ouch.
