I did a polish job on my Peter Johnson component group. My advice is get yourself a good low speed buffer and some good buffer wheels and some red and white compound and get to work. Unless you have some real dents of scratches, just go to the buffer, protect your hands, lungs, face, eyes and get to work buffing away. You will be done before you know what happened.
Good luck,
Guy Apple Sunnyvale California, USA
-----Original Message-----
>From: "Watts, Gary J (Vancouver, WA USA)" <gary.watts@hp.com>
>Sent: Dec 18, 2006 2:02 PM
>To: classicrendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]Polishing aluminum parts
>
>I got a fair number of questions about the polishing method I used on
>the Colnago Super Campy parts. I thought I'd post that information here
>for anyone that is interested.
>
>Ray Dobbins is to blame for "baiting" me with the beautiful examples of
>polished parts on his webpage such as his Molteni replica:
>
>http://www.raydobbins.com/molteni_replica/molteni_replica.htm
>
>He also has a useful page on polishing of his own, using a machine
>buffer here:
>
>http://www.raydobbins.com/polishing/
>
>The list there is good for knowing what parts will need to have the
>anodizing stripped first.
>
>I used the Easy-Off method (contains lye), leaving it on for 5-10
>minutes. This is not needed on non-anodized parts.
>
>Many of the parts had dents, scratches and other surface abnormalities.
>Polishing will make the part "shiny" byt not optically flat. This is
>very visible on flat surfaces.
>
>1) Strip off the anodizing
>2) File or sand out all imperfections. The exact method will depend on
>where and how deep the issues are.
>3) Start working through the various grits. I used 220 (Silicon Carbide
>paper like 3M wet-N-Dry, the black stuff)for the big offenders after
>filing, followed by 400, 600, 800, and 1200. After this, I started the
>Micromesh papers going up to 3600.
>4) Polish with Simichrome polish. This is great stuff and is best hand
>applied.
>5) I applied a coat of liquid carnuba wax (Meguiars or Mothers) to
>provide some simple protection.
>
>Patience is the key and not skipping grits. You'll get a mirror if you
>follow the steps.
>
>Gary Watts
>Vancouver, WA
>USA