Rich,
Yeah that was last year in the first round of the Import VS Domestic where I laid the smack down on the Worlds Fastest 3kGT. I picked the simichrome @ a local bike shop. ANY bike or Harley shop will have it.
Phil

 

I like Mother's Billett Polish. It was recommended to polish with regular Mothers Mag and AL polish first, the finish off w/ the Billett. I did this on my wheels, and the difference was night/day. Not doubting the effectiveness of the Simi Chrome, but it's not a fair comparision to plain Mothers.

 

Not sure of what you are talking about, who recommened using the aluminum and mag polish first? . Who recommended this.,.??? I talk exclusively with the Mother's Chemist.. my comparison was with Mothers Billet
the picture on the first page shows the mirror like finish with the simichrome, and the less than mirror like finish on the other spoke..with billet
the mag and aluminum polish wasn't even close to simichrome ..

 

Amazing how much interest in this post. I shall volunteer my bit of experience to further complicate matters.

Mother's is great for cleaning really dirty aluminum. Its cheap and works.
Getting the last bit of gray requires simichrome or the other German alternative, Flitz. You can usually find it at Ace Hardware or a very good gunshop.
Unlike simi, Flitz has zero abrasives. That is why people showing high polish blue firearms will use it to take off any surface rust. It will make a polished blue firearm glow. (Since blueing is actually a form of rust you use this stuff maybe once a year and very lightly. It leaves a protective coating.)

Hinckley sailboat owners use this (actually hire people to use it, of course) on their stainless and chrome and they bring the concept of ****-retentive personality to heights far beyond corvette owners. They actually buy it in tubs and have their topsides cleaned with it. (A tub costs about the same as a new runflat.) I don't understand why it works on Awlgrip painted fiberglass, but it does look remarkable.
It is really good on exhausts and engines as heat does not make the coating it leaves discolor.
I will be using it on my new Z06 tips and see what happens and will report back. (It is awesome on my harley pipes, controls, etc.)
g

 

Evil....Excuse me, down boy. I saw a couple of post asking what the comparision was between, but never saw the clear answer (Your post said Mother's, not the particular formula. Later the answer said both was tried, but still did say which formula was on the 5 o'clock position). So, I just concluded it was regular Mothers, my bad.

A Mother's rep is who told me to use Mag first, then follow up with the Billet. Time consuming, but hey, so is Zaino. It worked great, and you could see large improvements over just the Mag polish. The Billet used alone, wasn't anything spectaular, but the two used together,

The Mag polish gets most of the larger imperfections out, but the Billet finishes up the fine detail. Take it as using them in the order of compounding your car. You always end using the finest compound last.

 

I am very interested in how it works on your Ti exhuast. I currently use Mothers. Will anything, including simichrome, make the tips look less yellow, more chrome/alum in appearance.

 

ok the stock is now up.. time to dump my stock

 

And I can assume that if I actually have real chrome wheels - I do not need this stuff at all.

 

Jim , Ive told you before... the best stuff for chrome wheels is windex... any chrome polish will cause the plating to erode over the years... MY five year old Wagon wheels look as good today as they did five years agoo. and NO you do Not want to use simichrome on your chrome wheels..chrom polish is the kiss of death if your a DETAIL PERSON... once or twice a year is fine.. but if you clean them once a week.. in a few years they will start to turn a goldish color.. that is the substraight plating below.. because you have rubbed through the nickle...

 

 

FYI Eastwood carries Simichrome products.

http://eastwo.shops-shop.com/index0024.html

 

8.99 plus shipping???
most motorcycle shops sell it for 5.99

 

okay, I have been out doing the lord's work with my titanium exhaust tips using Flitz. This should cause simichrome and mother's stock to crash.

Reveals a nice glow, produced lots of black stuff that mother's mag and aluminum failed to get. I think that is the difference. That last bit of surface oxidation. I'm sure simi would look the same, I just wish to avoid the slight bit of abrasive in simi. They really have that "inner glow" now, particularly around the rims.
As a side benefit, I tried some on the inside of the tips. It removed all the carbon almost instantly. (My car, of course, does not produce carbon, but "vetdude's" must cause that is who I bought them from.

I am amazed at how the z06 exhaust makes the c5 *** look so much smaller.
glad to answer any questions or flames.
g

 

hey mac - on the ti tips (which i have, of course!) both work about the same. if you really have to know, simi's a little bit nicer in my experience (i've been using simichrome on bike parts for many years, nothing's better). however, the key is in the application--just like you were doing when your car was jacked up at andy's. be sure to put the stuff on and polish the stuff off with a high speed back & forth, exactly like a shoe shine. the cloth (soft smooth 100% white cotton undershirts work great, just sacrifice a couple for your car!) and the application technique make all the difference in the world. i squirt a little zaino gloss enhancer on top after doing just that, and this process keeps a great shine and protection for about a month or so at a time!

 

the man speaks the truth.

i always used windex then zaino gloss enhancer on my chrome c5 wheels for that added protection.

 

You Know slo vette.. it is nice to see people finding the "little things" that make or break a project.. I was interested in seeing your tee shirt comment... I think tee shirts are very important to this pproject.. I was feeling alittle **** about posting too many of my secrets.. Im old, and Ive found several things that make a big difference in the end result.. let me give you a few examples..
your tee shirt for taking off the simichrome is great..
the best Ive found for putting on and polishing is one of Sal Zainos polishing squares therryclothe with a foam pad.,, its the right cloth and the right foam density.,,,
the windex on chrome is a good thing...
here is a trick I discovered a few months ago
prior to waxing the car... I take a few of my tee shirts ( i have about fifty of them... some of them are ten years old.. ) I may use 8 to 10 just for a day of detailing.. I have about 6 of Sal's pads they work great..
Back to the trick .. I take the tee shirts Im going to use and throw them into the dryer.. if fluffs them and makes sure all the moisture is out of them.. a simple thing like that make a big difference try it.. you will say wow.. the wax polish comes off much easier.. especially if your using Zaino which seems to take forever to dry.. also using zaino I now can get about ten applications from a bottle,,, because I dampen the pad and it goes on much thinner and drys much fast... when I first started using Zaino five years ago.,.,I got two or three applications from a bottle.,. and it took forever to dry..
lastly.. tire dressing,,, I use Gel,, Endurance,,
I never spray or apply directly any dressing to a tire,,, I use one of those yellow rounf sponge applicators for wax.. I apply the gel or dressing to the pad,,, fold it over and try to squeeze it so it is evenly distributed into the pad.. then I rub the pad on the tire...
doing this , you will never get any drips of gel or dressing down into the rain channels or the tread.. this is the reason people get " dressing fling" on their fenders.. ok I have more but this isnt the car care section.,... Tee shirts rule..

 

oh you want to talk fanatical? i wash certain rags separately. and for the polishing cloths/t-shirts, i use liquid downy fabric softener in the water. i also sacrifice a couple of nice black gold toe dress socks every now & then for lexol and/or zaino leather creme on my mod red seats and vinylex (or zaino) for the vinyl--no fuzz leftover with that sock type. nothing worse than rag fuzz...





(this process is also why my recently sold '99 'vert w/65k miles looked almost as good as the day i got it, and why my new torch red/mod red z sticks out like a sore thumb! these cars are a big investment, might as well take care of 'em!)

 

Jim....I do indeed follow your shoeshine lessen/tip. I am still using Mothers but started using a microtowel....seems to work better ( all my t-shirts are Vette t-shirts )

I will try this SemiStuff whem I use up the Mothers......I do my exhaust EVERY weekend.

 

mac you're a MADMAN! getting used to those 3.42's? you got all kinds of things going on now, right? gears, vararam, exhaust, headers...

i promised myself to not get an a&a blower installed until i really learn how to drive this car like it can be driven (plus, it's my daily driver so i can't go too crazy with it). since i'm now learning to smoke the tires at 80 mph without getting sideways, i'm slowly getting up the learning curve... now i understand those who say, "traction is an issue."

want to take the car out on a roadcourse as well as a drag strip a few times to really learn the stock power, before adding on another 100+hp/tq or so...

 

Jim

I looked at my Ti tips today......they are almost chrome in color!!!! Try the microtowel...I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Yes my mod fever is almost out of control. I just had Andy add Hothckiss sways and am getting getting 18x9.5Front and 18x10.5Rear wheels with Khumo rubber. This became a necessity after almost going off some cliffs at the last SCMR. And off course I will put the Erradispeeds on at the same time ....also did the dyno tune.

Now I will wait and enjoy all this for a few months.....then the H/C will finnish the job