I've been reading some of the posts on polishing aluminum with suggestions/opinions on how to do it and it seems like some of these guys are making it much more work than it needs to be. I'm working on a aluminum polishing project and thought I'd take pics of the process. I know the fork legs is not a Harley part, it's left over from a dirt bike - no bitching about it.

This doesn't involve much money, I bought my grinder at a pawn shop years ago for $20, The buffing wheels ($6) and compound are from harbor freight, my apron it a $3 shower shower curtain cut to fit. This is not hard work but it does take time and it can be dirty.

The first pic shows the buffer setup. You need to remove the wheel guard to have access the polishing wheel. I hung a plastic drop cloth on the garage door to catch the compound as it comes off the wheel. It will make a mess and you want to make sure you cover everything near it.

Some guys are talking about sanding off the protective coating - you're wasting your time and energy. Spend $9 at NAPA or your local auto parts store on a can of "aircraft coating stripper". I use a electrical switch plate to remove the coating after it is lifted off the surface. It is inexpensive, $.25, and does not scratch the surface of the aluminum.

 

The first pic shows the entire fork leg before I started the process. This leg has been used and abused so the final result will be less than a show polish finish but you will be able to see the difference in the steps.

The second photo shows the area I covered to preserve the original finish.

Picture 3 shows what the surface looks like when the stripper is applied. Follow the instructions on the stripper and be careful.

Photo 4 shows the coating and stripper after I scraped the surface with the switch plate cover.

 

I've never thought of polishing aluminum with pictures. Do ones printed on kodak paper work better?

seriously though, I didn't know they made something that would just eat that stuff off. So it softens it, then you just scrape it off with something?

 

In the first photo you can see the line where I uncovered the leg to show the difference between the stripped lower leg and the coated upper leg. Because of the age and condition the line is not as well defined as you will find on a newer piece in better condition.

This second photo I re-taped the upper section and began the polishing process using the heavy cut compound

Photo 3 is a close up of the lower leg after the heavy compound step is completed

Picture 4 shows where I covered the course buffed area and used the fine compound to bring a brighter finish to the surface.

 

This first photo is a close up of the fine buffed area. I could have taken it further but this was just an exercise to show the process and there wasn’t much point since it’s getting tossed.

This last photo shows the coated, then course buffed section and the fine buffed section. The entire project took me about 3 hours including the photos. I also have a softer buffing wheel that would be used for the final passes.

All it takes is your time and patience and a little bit of money. Hopefully this will save someone the pain of trying to sand the coating off your aluminum parts. I have used this process on rocker boxes and Sporty cases and it works great.

 

I thought about doing this,but then I found a pair of chrome lower fork legs on Ebay. Much less work and they look GREAT

 

Looks great

How about some pics of the tools and materials you used ?
i know how to do it and what to do myself .
But pics might help some of the others

 

Honestly, what you see in the photos is all I used. Stripper, a switch plate cover and the buffing wheel and compound. I'm working on a pair of HD legs where I shaved off the right side caliper mounts but I don't don't have any pics now.

On the HD legs, I used 400 and 600 wet sanding the smooth surfaces. I used a sawzall, hacksaw, belt sander, orbital sander and a variety of hand files to remove the mounts. Again, it's just time and patience to take away small amounts of material until you get the desired shape. I'll try to post some pics of the HD legs tomorrow.

 

It's about the same stuff I use to polish the stock Harley bolts to look like chrome. One thing you have to also do is to wax over the polish to keep it from corroding.
Building a mandolin and some other fine stuff, I found that I don't like the orbitals. They can roll up ***** of dust and make circular scratches in the sanding and create more work for you on the next grit, but sometimes that's all you have to use.
If so, you can go over the work with another clean piece of wet paper by hand with reciprocating strokes and remove the circles.
Another trick I learned from a furniture finisher is that your paper grocery bag is 2000 grit. It can even polish dull headlights, especially if you add some polish.
Once you hit 2000 on anything soft, plastic, aluminum, copper, brass, etc. you are ready for the buffing wheels. The red and green grit from Harbor Freight do just fine; you could go some jeweler's rouge if you wish, but it won't make much more shine.

 

If you are polishing the cadmium plating off the stock bolts and shining up bare steel, there ain't a wax in the world that is gonna keep them from rusting.