How To Polish Aluminum?¿?¿?

[speed20]

I was sandblasting my triple trees today and was wondering how you would polish them without taking them to a shop or whatever....what appliances would you need??? Thanks

[Wolverine]

I was sandblasting my triple trees today and was wondering how you would polish them without taking them to a shop or whatever....what appliances would you need??? Thanks

Hiya. I recall when I owned Norton bikes in the 70's that there were tow relatively easy ways of getting a near mirror-finish on aluminium.
One was to use a product called Solvol Autosol, a polishing paste, and the cheaper alternative was to make your own paste up from garden lime, which was messier and also tended to burn the skin offf yoour fingers!
I'm not sure whether Solvol Autosol is available in the USA (I'm in the UK), but it's worth hunting for - a small tube lasts for years.

Cheers,
Pat

[TeCaTe_MaN]

or, you could just sand down all the little lumps with 100 grit and then just move up to about 600 grit and run a dremel with a buffing wheel over it

[CHAINSAW]

if you sand blasted your forks.... brother your in for a real workout unless you have some machines to sand that out. And on a rounded surface like that, hahaha goodluck! #1 rule in polishing.... dont sandblast alumimnum

[speed20]

I was surfin the web....and about 7 out of 10 sites was saying that you should sandblast, use like 60-80 grit sandpaper to get the pits out of it (if any) then keep going up to higher grit sandpaper and sand until youve reached your satisfaction.....i tried just clear coating it...and it just made it look all grayish and ugly!!! i have a dremel, air compressor, electric sanders, stuff like that....i dont think it would be that much of a deal....but you never know...some say its a pain, others say its pretty easy.

[BLAZERONE22]

This is the best stuff in the world. works good for me. http://www.brilexsolutions.com/page6.html

[TrikeKid]

Miagi say "wax on wax off" works for all my crap never polished anything that had been sandblasted tho i just use Mother's mag and aluminum or turtle wax chrome cleaner useually the cleaner since you dont need to wash the part before hand and the shine still stays without anything else. its good for emergency show truck cleaning i know that (that means when you get to the show after driving about 2 hours in the rain and dad has you clean up the exhaust elbows because the rain and god knows what else has mixed and covers the shine.

[CHAINSAW]

if your wanting a mirror like, chrome finish to it.. a flawless finish, Im guess your in for at least 20 hours of sanding time.. at least. Im not joking either.. it you have sand blasted it your gonna have huge arms when your done.
The pages you should of looked at, were the bead blast pages. Sand is to coarse, and is only good on old rusted out cars. On soft aluminum, you should ONLY bead blast, and with real fine media. The kind of media that feels like flour in your hand. If you would have cleaned it up that way, you would only be looking at 2-3 hour of sanding and polishing per fork.

Oh, and dont clear coat aluminum. It will not ever rust, and there is no need for clear. Just polish it once a month and it will keep its shine forever.

[Dirtcrasher]

Yep, your gonna look like Popeye when your done! Depends what grade of sand you used also - the 00 type is really fine and not too bad in terms of pitting but the 0 and up grades are for items which will be primed and painted. Dremels suck - I wouldn't polish a quarter with a dremel - they are good for tiny little jobs or cutting things off in hard to get to places, but other than that - each bit lasts about 35 seconds :? Too bad you can't paint them with a good auto paint with a hardner or chrome them or powdercoat to match your frame. Yeah, I know those all cost $$.

[ATCnut]

There is a place here in Auburn Washington called Aluminations run by a guy named Larry Barnes. All he does is polish aluminum. Costs a little more in $, but a lot less of my time. I just take stuff to him and get it back looking like chrome.