Polishing metal question...I'm confused...

[Jax]

Went to a car show and talked to a vendor that sold Wenol, metal polish/restorer...I want to polish up my bar ends...there are scratched from milling the parts...now I want to bring them to an almost chrome shine...if that is possible... I asked the vendor about sanding. He recommended that I use 2000 or 1500 grit...also he said to use oil or the product when sanding...Now I have been doing that my question is if I'm doing it correctly...will I get the results I want by sanding around the bar ends..should I be sanding in a side to side (opposite from the scratches)? or should I be sanding in a circular motion? Any advice, tips, experience etc...would be definately appreciated...

[ThAzKat]

use the piece of sand paper like a strap on round material. also use a soapy wet solution to get better results. if the scratches are deep they will take alot of time to get out with 2,000 or 1,500 griit paper. you might want to start with a more coarse paper and work up to 2,000 or even 3,000 grit.

[tzortn]

If you want a crome like finish you will need to go to a polishing compound on a buffin wheel.

[ThAzKat]

If you want a crome like finish you will need to go to a polishing compound on a buffin wheel.

or neerchrome LOL

[Waltari]

Everyone always talks about sanding to 2000 grit to get a mirror finish. I do high polish mirror finish on sculptures every other day at work and our process is 36grit if shaping or material removal is necessary, 100 grit, 100 grit on a soft pad, 400 grit on a soft pad, then switch to a sewn buffing wheel with a green compound.

We use all air tools at the shop but other electric hand tools would work fine. I just polished a 2" band on four sides of four sculpture bases this afternoon...took about 15 minutes each going from rough cast to mirror polish.

[ThAzKat]

Waltari should know, he does this for a living!

Post a pic up of that bronze horse Waltari

[NewRider]

Note to Jax: If you have the stock bar ends, your bar ends are steel, not aluminum. You can polish them to a mirror finish until the cows come home, but the will be rusty within a few days.

If the are aluminum or stainless, I recommend mothers metal poish as a final step. You don't need much 2000 grit paper or whatever as waltari said (and he knows his stuff). Just use something like whatever sandpaper you have around, followed by some ultrafine steel wool, and then hit it with the mothers.

[Waltari]

Waltari should know, he does this for a living!

Post a pic up of that bronze horse Waltari

Well the horse wound up just getting a patina in the end, but we cast alot of sculptures for the Bennett family and a majority of their stuff gets a mirror finish...heres a couple examples done using the method I mentioned.










Ok Thom...here you go....



Actually, the guy that commissioned us to do the two draft horses stopped in yesterday and it looks like I'm going to be doing two more pairs! Thats alot of metal for sure 8)

[NewRider]

Abso-fucking-lutely awesome Waltari!!

[md86]

Yes they do , I painted an old helmet with it once ! Everyone said they could see me coming from a mile away !
Waltari , how big were those horses , and did you just ship them recently ? At work the other night there were a couple of horsies in a container that came through . I didn't get to go look at them , but it was kinda cool ...

[Waltari]

Yes they do , I painted an old helmet with it once ! Everyone said they could see me coming from a mile away !
Waltari , how big were those horses , and did you just ship them recently ? At work the other night there were a couple of horsies in a container that came through . I didn't get to go look at them , but it was kinda cool ...

The adult horse stands about 9-10' tall, the colt is about 5-6' tall. Sorry...no shipping container for those...we install them on sight up near Grass Valley, CA a few months back. The rumor is at least one of the next sets might be installed somewhere in Texas.

[Jax]

Thanks for the info...here's another question I'm doing this by hand on Stainless steel...I see the items Waltari showed look like brass which is much softer than Stainless steel...if doing it by hand I was thinking of doing 1000 grit then 1500 grit finish off with 2000 grit and then use rubbing compound...now I will admitt I have no idea what I am doing...so any advice or comments would be appreciated...and I will accept the advice "hey stupid by hand will take you forever!! "...

[ThAzKat]

Waltari, if you find out where in Texas, let me know, I'd like to go see your work in person!

Maybe up the street from the water fountain of horses

[Waltari]

Waltari, if you find out where in Texas, let me know, I'd like to go see your work in person!

Will do...the people that purchused the original set are land developers so I'm sure they'll go at the entrance of some upscale gated housing community.

Thanks for the info...here's another question I'm doing this by hand on Stainless steel...I see the items Waltari showed look like brass which is much softer than Stainless steel...if doing it by hand I was thinking of doing 1000 grit then 1500 grit finish off with 2000 grit and then use rubbing compound...now I will admitt I have no idea what I am doing...so any advice or comments would be appreciated...and I will accept the advice "hey stupid by hand will take you forever!!

Actually, it's bronze, but we also do a bunch of other fabrication as well including work in stainless...we use the same process for that as well. Put it this way, before I was in the know, I took my stock purple 1995 katana rims, blasted them, smoothed out the rouch cast spokes and polished them to this by hand...



End result was great, but it took me 14hrs per rim over a few days and I wound up with bloody finger tips. Today, I could do those same rims with an even better quality in about 2hrs per rim from rough to mirror with no bloody finger tips. Let tools do the work if you can.

[Jax]

Great advise...I have a Harbor Freight just down the street...I want to buy a few tools to do this because I am also stripping the rims and going to do the same process...What would you recommend I buy at the store...I'm kinda on a budget so as everyone would understand...the cheaper the better....but also I would like to know the process...I know I'm asking for a lot but I also think others would benefit from the knowledge....Thanks guys I am really looking forward to doing this...