Polishing aluminium and it stays hazy/scratched?

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ForcedFalcon

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Hey guys, This is my first time poster on the forums but a long time reader of all the guides and posts.

I recently purchased some 1 piece wheels for my show car build and there were tiny lines in the "polished" dish from where it was CNC'd.
The reason i say "Polished" is because its about as dull as standard alloy wheels everyone else has....maybe not that bad, But still not even close for what I'd like.

So I first started wet sanding to get all the tiny lines out for a completely flat glass like surface, Then using 3 different polishing wheels and rouges and finally finishing with mothers.
The end result...Worse than when I started. I've used this same technique to polish the intake housing on my turbo and it turned out looking perfect, So I'm stumped as to why my wheels wont polish up as nice.

Tried to upload pictures but keeps failing and URL doesn't seem to want to work either, Oh well.

Any advice or ideas is much appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Wait a minute--so that whole lip is clearcoated and you saw some machining lines under the clear, so you sanded through the clear down to the metal and continued sanding until the lines were gone, on just that one small spot, then you tried to polish that back?

So if you got the polish you wanted on that one spot, what were you going to do, leave it with one spot without clear? Or sand and polish the whole thing? You were using a Dremel or a drill with a felt bob? I really can't figure why you can't get the mirror finish you're looking for if you have done this kind of thing before, but I'm trying to wrap my head around why you did this because the rest of the lip looks really good. Is it possible you're not really through the paint yet in that spot?
 
What rouge and wheels are you using? Cleaning your wheels between passes?
Soft aluminum is a pain since it holds rouge. Fill a old sock up with baking soda and lightly rub after each compounding step. Always rub in one direction only.
I wouldn't wax it since the wax can gather in micro pits and look bad. Use a coating when it's done.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Wait a minute--so that whole lip is clearcoated and you saw some machining lines under the clear, so you sanded through the clear down to the metal and continued sanding until the lines were gone, on just that one small spot, then you tried to polish that back?

So if you got the polish you wanted on that one spot, what were you going to do, leave it with one spot without clear? Or sand and polish the whole thing? You were using a Dremel or a drill with a felt bob? I really can't figure why you can't get the mirror finish you're looking for if you have done this kind of thing before, but I'm trying to wrap my head around why you did this because the rest of the lip looks really good. Is it possible you're not really through the paint yet in that spot?
Click to expand...

I was using it as a test spot since I was going out just to see how it would come out once the whole lip was done. The rest of the lip isn't even close to chrome looking and is dull and has machining lines all through it, The pictures don't really show how much you see the lines. I used a drill with 3 cheap wheels and rouges then finished with mothers mag and alloy polish. When polishing with mothers mag and alloy it was turning black like everything else I've polished so I should be through the paint.
 
I think you can't post pics yet cuz you don't have enough posts.
 
Muddyoldgoat said:
What rouge and wheels are you using? Cleaning your wheels between passes?
Soft aluminum is a pain since it holds rouge. Fill a old sock up with baking soda and lightly rub after each compounding step. Always rub in one direction only.
I wouldn't wax it since the wax can gather in micro pits and look bad. Use a coating when it's done.
Click to expand...

I was just using some cheap ones but I've had good results prior to this with them. Thanks for the tip I'll give it a try. I noticed Mothers has a polish specifically for billet alloy, Could that be my problem since the wheels are 1 piece forged and not cast like everything else I've polished? Cheers.
 
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