How to hand polish...

[Ruimteaapje]

Could somebody provide a "how to" for hand polishing an aluminium seatpost? I suppose there's a topic already but used the search function and could not find it. I'm a newbee when it comes to polishing bike parts and the post does have a fair number of scratches soo needs smoothening first. Advise about what sandpaper grit, what polishing paste to use, etc., is most welcome

 

[twosheds]

This is the way I have polished parts up to now. (I got some advice from forum members when I did my Dawes Galaxy build.)
If I have any bad scratches, I take them out with a small fine tooth file first, or emery paper if they are not too bad.
Then I use wet-r-dry paper, starting around 600 grit, moving down through the grades to 1200. I alternate the direction of use by 90 degrees each grade, then I can see the marks from the previous grade disappearing. (Hope this bit makes sense.)
Then I finally polish with Autosol, or Peek metal polish, maybe twice. I started to do this by hand but I soon fitted a 150mm polishing wheel to my bench grinder to speed up the process.
This is my method, I am sure others may have different ideas.
I have found that some parts won't polish as easily as others, something to do with the alloy, and you can't polish anodised parts.

Bruce

 

[Big Block]

Re:

the topic is well covered in this thread
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vinta ... hread.html

 

[Mike Muz]

Re:

I start off with 240grit sandpaper, then some 600 wet or dry.paper,dry. Then the same wet. Then polish with Autosol
Seatposts are easy, try doing a mech or two! A lot more fiddly

Good luck

Mike

 

[Ruimteaapje]

Thanks guys, excellent info!

 

[t47b]

Re:

Only thing to add to what's been said is that aluminium has a grain, so you will need to end up working with the grain to achieve a high gloss, you will see the difference that working with or against the grain makes as you go along.

Here's a bit of 1956 bit of aluminium I did earlier

 

[The History Man]

Isetta?

 

[t47b]

Re:

Yep, BMW Isetta 300 Standard 1956 four wheel German model
(bike is Swiss, Imholz 1964)

Oops, excuse saddle

 

[The History Man]

Nice.

 

[ibbz]

Re: Re:

the topic is well covered in this thread
http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vinta ... hread.html

That's on a different website so I reckon a similar thread here would be beneficial.