How to polish some parts

[BCOWANWHEELS]

How do you fellas polish the front grill aluminum surround .

Also how do you polish gauge cluster lens.
Thanks

[hotdog hound]

Never Dull on the Chrome, Stainless, and Aluminum and Toothpaste on the glass

[toolboxchev]

I did an experiment on my old dented up and rusty stuff.

Flitz

It did quite well. I have tried never dull, works, yet the flitz removes oxidation more readily. less work 4 me!

[BCOWANWHEELS]

by hand

[rockyrivermark]

Mothers aluminum and mag polish is amazing stuff!
Little elbow grease needed with great results

[special-K]

First thing you do to polish an aluminum grille is remove the anodizing, then bring back the polish.

[BCOWANWHEELS]

how do you remove the anodizing

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by BCOWANWHEELS

how do you remove the anodizing

I went through this a couple of years ago. I took mine to a media blaster in Maryland. It's super shiny now and I haven't polished it in two years. It's been inside that entire time though.

After you get it blasted, scuff up the areas necessary with a scotbrite pad (those areas are year specific), tape off, and spray paint satin black. That was factory.

The blaster suggested Wenol as a polish.

[toolboxchev]

Originally Posted by BCOWANWHEELS

how do you remove the anodizing

Some say to use that cheap oven cleaner at Dollars Stores, it strips it right off. I have a couple pieces I am going to run an experiment on.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Sounds like it's common practice not to re-anodize the grille again. That true?

I heard that oven cleaner strips it right off. If I recall, the same for paint on plastic.

[Cbo]

What the name of the oven cleaner you guys are using?

[rockyrivermark]

Here's what did and got great results.
Buy some hair and grease remover. It's a drain opener and you can get it from a Home Depot or Lowe's etc.
wear gloves and eye protection.
Apply the remover and let sit for 5 min. Then use scotch brite to scrub off the anodizing. The grille will then look dull silver.
Then sand the entire grille in an order similar to this.
220 grit
320
400
600
800
1200 wet sand
2000 wet sand
Polish with mothers aluminum and mag polish
Clean with denatured alcohol
Seal with permaclear sealer
Takes a Saturday afternoon
But looks great and never needs re polishing since it's sealed.

[rockyrivermark]

Pics

[my56chevytruck]

Originally Posted by BCOWANWHEELS

How do you fellas polish the front grill aluminum surround .

Also how do you polish gauge cluster lens.
Thanks

I've used Adam's polish for years, found it to be the best. The sheen lasts for a very long time.

[BCOWANWHEELS]

whats permaclear

[rockyrivermark]

Originally Posted by BCOWANWHEELS

whats permaclear

I searched this board this past summer looking for something to seal the aluminum since I was polishing every other week. Didn't have any luck and searched the web and finally found this
Perameal.
It's a thin sealant so far works great. Manuafactured for commercial aluminum store front doors, hardware etc.
google is.
$20.

[DT1]

I've done a couple of them before. The picture is from an old post. I stripped the anodizing with a 20:1 mix of cold water sodium hydroxide. It's very caustic and will strip it off in minutes.