first time polishing

[dasjuicebox]

well this was my first time polishing. I used the polishing 101 thread as a guide. overall im ok with the results but not excited, its slightly cloudy and i can see some grain. how would i get a better finish? any help would be appreciated!

couple of problems i had:
couldnt tell when i was finished
changing directions sucks when sanding
hard to reach areas
no idea how to use the buffer. the wheel kept turning black, and i didnt know how much compound to put on or when i needed mor

the start

the finished product after 120,150,200,300,400,600, and a quick polish on the bench

 

[GK]

To be honest, it's bloody hard to tell from those pictures

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Take some pictures with the light in front of the pieces instead of behind them.

 

[dasjuicebox]

yeah, i knew they werent the greatest.

heres some better ones

 

[Sonreir]

You can't jump from 600 grit to buffing. If you want a mirror finish, go to 800, 1000, and then at least 1200.

Aluminum (like your carb bowls) is a soft metal and should polish easily with just brown tripoli compound and a sissal or spiral sewn wheel. Unfortunately, the shape of the bowls makes is extremely difficult to polish them well.

When it comes time for the buffing, it's fine that the wheel turns black. That's supposed to happen. I like to add a bit more compound to the wheel every few minutes. I can usually cover about 6 square inches of a flat metal before adding more compound but I usually add more between each piece if the parts are smaller than that. Make sure the parts gets nice and hot while you're buffing it. If you can hold it with your bare hands, it's not getting hot enough. That heat is necessary to melt the wax in the buffing compound and free up the abrasives.

Finish with a wipedown of chemical polish (such as Mother's) on a microfiber cloth and then another wipe down with alcohol for just a little extra bling.

 

[dasjuicebox]

You can't jump from 600 grit to buffing. If you want a mirror finish, go to 800, 1000, and then at least 1200.

Aluminum (like your carb bowls) is a soft metal and should polish easily with just brown tripoli compound and a sissal or spiral sewn wheel. Unfortunately, the shape of the bowls makes is extremely difficult to polish them well.

When it comes time for the buffing, it's fine that the wheel turns black. That's supposed to happen. I like to add a bit more compound to the wheel every few minutes. I can usually cover about 6 square inches of a flat metal before adding more compound but I usually add more between each piece if the parts are smaller than that. Make sure the parts gets nice and hot while you're buffing it. If you can hold it with your bare hands, it's not getting hot enough. That heat is necessary to melt the wax in the buffing compound and free up the abrasives.

Finish with a wipedown of chemical polish (such as Mother's) on a microfiber cloth and then another wipe down with alcohol for just a little extra bling.

thanks for the tips,

i wanted to use a higher grit, but the hardware stores near me dont carry anything beyond 600. ill definitely pick some up from amazon or somewhere.

the time spent on the buffer was about 10 minutes, and it never got hot. ill be sure to retry and get it hot

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

You still have scratches from sanding. Finer sandpaper before buffing.

Here is a good thread about polishing.
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=30741.msg331589#msg331589