Door Sills - Buffing
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 11,183
Likes: 3,334
From: North of Toronto - Ontario
You can sand out any scratches but to buff them you'll need to remove the anodize in those areas. Chemical stripping is fairly easy and cheap.
A like scuff on the painted areas and you can re-paint.
You may want to check the price on new ones before you invest a lot of time in refurbishing the old ones. Then again, looking at your location, maybe not.
M
2026 Loser of the Year
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 36,557
Likes: 7,006
From: New Or-leens Loo-z-anna
Years ago you could buy a special cloth buffing wheel that was impregnated with industrial diamond dust. They were round white cloth pieces stitched together to form 1/2" to 1" wide "wheels". It fit onto your bench grinder as a grinding wheel would fit, and would remove scratches from any metal that was not flame-hardened without gouging the metal like a sander would. It would polish stainless steel and aluminum to imitate chrome plating. Check the local industrial supplier in your area to see if the buffing wheels are still made. They are not messy at all like the cloth buffing wheels that you apply the polishing compound to, and polish metal much faster.
Last edited by doorgunner; Apr 9, 2015 at 08:08 AM.
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
From: Auckland
Thanks Moose, doorgunner.
Have the buffing gear so, have given it a go. As shipping fr new ones will be $100.
So scratched had to take anodizing off about 3 hrs of work..... looks good now but if oxidizaton dulls them to much will have to buy new ones.
Have the buffing gear so, have given it a go. As shipping fr new ones will be $100.
So scratched had to take anodizing off about 3 hrs of work..... looks good now but if oxidizaton dulls them to much will have to buy new ones.
Last edited by Vandros; Apr 9, 2015 at 09:01 PM.
Race Director
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 11,183
Likes: 3,334
From: North of Toronto - Ontario
For future reference, you can strip the anodize off using drain cleaner crystals and water. Use the ones with all the warnings not the eco stuff.
Use a test meter to see when the anodizing is gone, anodizing is not conductive so when you can get a reading between different spots you know it's bare.
Then sand/buff
A good polish with something like flitz, blue magic or something along those lines (should be able to smell the ammonia in it) will protect those for quite a while with just a quick once over now and again.
M
Use a test meter to see when the anodizing is gone, anodizing is not conductive so when you can get a reading between different spots you know it's bare.
Then sand/buff
A good polish with something like flitz, blue magic or something along those lines (should be able to smell the ammonia in it) will protect those for quite a while with just a quick once over now and again.
M
2026 Loser of the Year
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 36,557
Likes: 7,006
From: New Or-leens Loo-z-anna
Too bad you can't find those cloth wheels...they would have removed the anodize and scratches at the same time leaving a super shine.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 2,156
Likes: 273
From: Dunedin NZ.
The red tripoli polish and a buffing wheel will do the job. Bunnings have it in Dunedin so I would expect they would in Auckland too. You can spray them with a clear acrylic if you don't want to keep polishing them.
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