How to: Polishing Aluminum

In this short tutorial I will teach you how to polish aluminum to a near mirror finish.*IMPORTANT* - This could void any warranty. Please if you are worried about this contact the company directly or ask you LBS to contact the company rep if you have any concerns whether this will affect your warranty before going on any further.

Materials needed;

- 400 grit Wet/Dry Sand paper
- 600 grit Wet/Dry Sand paper
- Plastic Sanding block
- Rubbing Compound
- Aluminum Polish
- Clear Coat
- Dish Soap
- Thin Rubber gloves

*If the part you plan on polishing is painted you will need to strip the paint off. For this I recommend LePage Poly Super Strippa.*


Step 1: Wet sanding - Once the piece is stripped of all paint we can move on to this step. You will want to start off with the 400 grit sand paper. Cut a square so it fits onto your sanding block without having overlap on the sides. Keep the part and sand paper wet while doing the sanding, this will keep aluminum dust off the part while sanding and keep it from getting in the air and you end up breathing it in. For that I recommend keeping the part submerged, I partly filled my bathtub and used that. This step is important to ensure a clean looking part; when you are sanding the part you want the sand paper to be going in one direction, Scrub length wise otherwise your part will come out dull. Repeat until original tooling marks look faint.

Step 2: Wet sanding - Repeat Step 1 with the 600 grit sand paper.

Step 3: Cleaning - Take the dish soap and mix it with water, 1:1 I have found to work the best for cleaning. Wash the part with the soap and water this will take off any aluminum residue from the sanding. Once the part is clean rinse the part with water and dry with a microfiber towel or some type of soft towel that will not scratch the frame.

Step 4: Final Sanding - Grab a clean rag, with the clean rag apply some of the rubbing compound to the part. Apply pressure to the part when you are scrubbing. (You will want to scrub down the length of the part.) Do this until the compound turns dark continue scrubbing for about 30 seconds then wipe off with a clean rag.

Step 5: Polishing - With gloves on take your aluminum polish and apply directly to your part. With a clean rag buff the part in a circular motion. The polish will turn black fairly quick. Once this happens wipe off with a rag and repeat the polishing once more. Keep your gloves on whenever handling the frame at this point, you will get finger prints and your end product will not turn out as well as it could. This is your final product, it should be mirror like by this point.

Step 6: Cleaning - At this point you will want to repeat the cleaning step that we did between sanding and using the rubbing compound. This will make sure there is no oil on the frame as this would keep the clear coat from curing properly.

Step 7: Clear Coating - Make sure after you have washed your frame that it has been dried and that there are no new scratches as this will make your end product look dull. (If you do find scratches repeat; Step 4, Step 5, Step 6 before moving on to step 7.) Once you have made sure there are no large scratches and that the part is dry hang the part, either using a coat hanger, hook, rope etc. when applying the clear coat spray consistently, don’t do small sprays when clear coating you will get a slightly textured look in the clear coat which will dull the shine. Let each coat dry for at least 2 hours before spraying a second coat.

Once you are done step 7 you should have a mirror finished piece that is resistant to scratches and finger prints.





Enjoy!