What to use to polish out old aluminum?

[Mountain Man]

I want to see if I can bring back life to my 72 grill. On my 67 , I used Mothers alum. polish , and lots of elbow grease. Is there something better? Any recomendations?

[Sweet72]

No miracle chemical can replace elbow grease!

This will be easier to do with the grill removed from the truck. Use a buffing wheel in your electric drill motor with rubbing compound, and progressively finer grades of compound. Finish the job off by hand polishing with the mothers aluminum polish. Protect the new shine with a good quality paste wax.

[lock]

Use buffing wheels. I like to use tripoli compound and then jewlers rouge and then a common aluminum polish like Mothers. You can get aluminum to shine like a mirror with the right process.

here is a good link

http://www.gmtips.com/3rd-degree/dox.../info/info.htm

Here is some adpaters I did using this process. The top one is complete. the bottom is hand sanded to 1000 grit wet.

[Jeepster376]

Don't forget the beer, a key ingredient for polishing aluminum.

[Jeepster376]

Problem is the grill is anodized, so it can't be polished, only cleaned. Unless you sand or electic strip the anodize off.

[smitty62]

A lot easier if you remove the anodizing chemically first.

[Faster_than_you]

I picked up some stuff from satin gloss. I think that there metal polish is something out of this world! very awesome stuff. it removes oxidation, and other unwanted crap on your metal.

[Big J]

You might try Blue Magic, I used it on my wheels and it worked better (easier, less elbow grease, lol) than the Mothers. Walmart and most auto parts stores sell it.

[Faster_than_you]

well if you want to order some satin gloss metal polish here is some information I see on the bottle:
matt chemical
wearville, nc
dealer inquiries: 1-828-645-2870
To Reorder-1-800-843-9291
the retail amount for a 12 oz. bottle, which will be more than plenty for my lifetime, goes for about $19.95
mothers I think sucks big rocky mountain oysters, sorry mothers polish lovers. I had a 87 vette, yeah mothers polish stripped my finish on my valve covers. it also oxidized my paint.
hope this helps you on your polishing quest

[Wootdog]

If the metal is oxidized, to take pits out. Start with 320 grit sandpaper on a Orbital sander. Go to 600, 800, and then polish out with a cotton buffing wheel. Use Coker compound from James G. Morrison in Searcy Arkansas. It is yellow in color. Then use a polishing paste of Flitz. Available from Grainger. Use a wool pad. Buff until surface is black. Wipe off with a clean cotton rag. Put flour on the surface to remove any excess Flitz. The Flitz on the surface should be good for approximately 3 to 6 months. This is from Barry who polishes aluminum for a living. Wootdog

[Faster_than_you]

I started thinking about it, and thought that the polish will even shine up the scratches. so if you have scratches you might want to use sweet 72's advise, and remove the grille, and get all your scraches out using finner and finner grit sanding methods. then polish with ANYTHING BUT mothers polishing compounds.
good luck freind we all for your efforts on trying to salvage your grille. my old man was funny, my grille after I had him paint it, he took a chisel laid it flat on the grill then a hammer came into place. oh man I told him what the crap are you doing! he said what it is going to be taken off anyways. ohhhh it was in perfect condition intell he did that. I was pissed.