Tricks to Polishing Metal!

welcome back guys got a good video for you today been wanting to do a really

comprehensive video on how to clean and polish up metal parts on a dirt bike or

really anything for that matter so whether you've got aluminum stainless

steel or steel this is the video for you so there's a couple different ways you

can clean up metal you can give it just a nice clean simple look or you can do

like a brushed look or you can go for fully polished and make it look like

chrome so I'm gonna cover all that in today's video now the first thing I'm

gonna cover is how to clean the part without damaging the metal now this

particular part is made of aluminum now all these steps will be the same for

anything made of steel stainless steel or aluminum like this so a product I've

found that works really good for cleaning up metal and doesn't damage the

substrate itself is the simple green degreaser you get at Home Depot or

Amazon so I just mix it 50/50 with water and a spray bottle and it seems to do

the trick so I'll just spray the part down let it soak for a few minutes and

then just give her a little scrub down all that should just wipe away so that

degreaser ripped all that dirt and grime off pretty good

still a little bit of crustiness with scrapes no whatnot but if you simply

just want to clean up your part and give it a bright shine a product that works

really good as well is this Eagle one cleaning foam doesn't

work quite as good as the old Magpul cleaner but still pretty effective so

let's give it a shot so this stuff you just spray it on let it soak for a few

minutes and scrub it around and rinse it off

looks like I've brightened it up pretty good now another option for cleaning and

shining up metal is vapor blasting or some people call it wet blasting it's

similar to sandblasting but you use water with the abrasive and it works

really good at cleaning up and it leaves a nice shine on the part to you now I

don't have one of those units but hoping to get one pretty soon after cleaning

this thing up I realize this kind of coat of paint on it looks like a clear

coat now typically these don't come from the factory with any sort of paint but

either way I'm gonna take it to the next level and clean it up on the bench

grinder should be able to get all of this crustiness off of here now what

I'll be using on the bench grinder is this cleaning pad similar to scotch

brite but it's reinforced so that way it doesn't just shred apart and it's also

embedded with abrasive so it works really well I'll show you guys

after a few minutes on the bench grinder got this triple clamp looking pretty

sweet it's actually a ton of fun buffing away like 25 years of crustiness so what

I'm using here is a like a finer pad find their grit pad if you were compare

it to use sandpaper I would say it's probably some around 4 or 500 grit

sandpaper but when you're using it you want to be really careful around sharp

edges like right here or up near the mouths if you catch it on that you'll

kind of tear the pad and then when you're finishing off the part you want

to work in the same direction to give it a nice consistent look so say on the

back here you want to work from one end to the other like that just so it's not

a spotty finish now if you have a part that has some scrapes or wearing it like

this one we have a little nick right there on the sides it's a little bit

wavy and on the front there's somewhere from a cable we can use a more

aggressive pad to smooth that out so what I have here is a little bit more

aggressive type pad so I'll show you what we can do with this

so the course pad smooth out those pits pretty good can't really even tell they

were ever there smooth now that pit we had over here too

as well as the cable we're on the front of the triple clamp made it nice and

smooth now to blend this in with the rest of the clamp we can go back to the

finer pad oh and by the way this course pad is gonna be pretty close to about

120 grit sandpaper all right I've got those areas blended in turned out super

nice check that out now that I've got you guys all sold on what you can do

with a buffer machine let me show you a few options here so this is the unit

I've been using it is a Baldur believe it's a three-quarter horsepower

two-speed so 3,600 rpm and 1800 rpm super nice unit it's gonna last you a

lifetime but they are pretty spendy and believe they're around 800 and so I

decided to test a cheaper unit here this is a half horsepower 1/2 inch shaft

still with the extended shaft so you can get you know parts in there like this

one you got plenty of clearance to work on parts

so anyways bought this one Amazon for 60 bucks paid 30 for the stand and I've

been testing it out for you guys and see if they actually hold that see if it's a

good option and so far so good like it's been a really solid unit and no issues

thus far so I will link this motor down below for you guys as well as this one

if you want to go super heavy-duty just to give you a couple options oh and by

the way the stand for this one was from Harbor Freight alright for pads

I've got a couple different options here like I said I have a finder pad in a

course pad so this is the course pad we're using to smooth out those

scratches and the fine pad is for like a finishing kind of touch to it

so these are eight inch pads they work really good on a bigger machine like

this and for the smaller machine I have six inch pads on here you can run the 8

inch pads on here although with heavy use the motor might bog down a little

bit and then one thing you can do to make these pads last a little bit long

is stack them on the buffer so do like too wide or three wide that'll create a

little wider path and then if you're using them on something like a sewer arm

like we have here the finish will actually be a bit more consistent to

when you have a little bit more surface area there so the only difference

between the eight-inch pads and 6-inch pads is the six-inch pads aren't gonna

last quite as long obviously with them being smaller we're

going to wear down quicker and also these ones are cheaper so gets you in

the game without investing quite as much so you can buy these pads as a set with

the fine and the coarse or just individually or packs of three many

different options so I will link all these pads down below in the description

now say if you're working with a part that was super intricate had a bunch of

tight areas that you couldn't get those scotch-brite wheels into you like down

here let me show you what I would do there so this is called a dremel and

it's got a scotch-brite attachment on it found these little

things on Amazon they're pretty cheap but they wear out pretty quick although

they do do the trick

now at this point triple clamp looks pretty good I'd be pretty stoked with it

just a nice clean finish but believe it or not there's actually more steps we

can take with this so if you want to smooth out all these casting lines like

these lands right here make the clamp look like a billet piece we can do that

with a different product on the buffer alright so what we got here is a flat

wheel but this isn't like your Grandpa's flat wheel this thing is pretty sweet so

it's got flaps of sandpaper which are 80 grit and then in between each piece of

sandpaper is scotch brite so essentially what this is going to do is shape the

metal you can smooth out all these lines these things are pretty freakin sweet

let me get it on the buffer

so you can see pretty quickly that flap wheel remove the casting line and just

smooth this thing out right there that looks like a billet

piece so I'm going to attack the whole triple clamp get rid of all these

casting lines here and just kind of the deformation over time now you could

remove all the casting lines with the rougher wheel like I did here

although what I found with that wheel if you try to do too much with it you end

up with a little bit of a wavy surface like we do the whole clamp you'll notice

it gets a little wavy whereas with this wheel it keeps it really smooth and

doesn't warp the surface at all

man that flap will really smooth out those casting lines good everything

looks nice and tidy now obviously you don't want to get too crazy in areas

like this and start removing too much material say if I were to smooth out

this piece right here I think that probably removed too much material and

might cause some issues with strength but just for some light material removal

these flap wheels work pretty good now to blend in those areas I just buffed

out I'm gonna use the finer pad to give it that nice shine like we have right

here and just for a little more flexibility I do have these mini wheels

that go on the air grinder same concept it's got scotch brite in between the

sandpaper so it allows you to get in tighter areas

like this right here or if you want to use it on a concentrated area that has

like a deep scratch or a scrape like this Kickstarter here we would be able

to use it to blend that out right there

so that only took what like a minute to do pretty quick smooth it out nice you

can see there's still a little dip right there don't want to remove too much

Michelle here just so I don't weaken the Kickstarter but yeah that flap will rip

right through smooth it out and left a good finish so this is the point where I

would typically stop I absolutely loved brush look hard to beat that but there's

actually a few more things we could do to this to make it look even better now

I know we were kind of all over the place when we were prepping this thing

but to rewind it kind of simplify things to bring it to this point I would first

start with a rough wheel to knock off the the big edges the big scrapes and

scratches and whatever then bust out the flap wheel I really smooth it out give

it that nice uniform look get the rough wheel back on the bench grinder to

smooth out these scratches from this wheel with a flat wheel and then finally

get the fine wheel mounted up and give this thing a nice brushed look so that's

pretty sweet-looking but the next step we're gonna go with this is to give it a

mere shine you might want to get your sunglasses on for this step guys now

keep in mind before we polish this thing out we'll need to make sure there's no

pits or scratches anywhere so for example these ones right here will stick

out like a sore thumb once we have this thing all buffed out so we're going to

use the rough and the fine cleaning wheels just smooth all that out

perfectly alright we've got it all smoothed out looking good we're ready

for the next step now in order to bring this to a mirror shine we're gonna use a

couple different wheels and compounds here so the first step is a sown wheel

so it's got sown all these sewn sections in it pretty stiff wheel I'm going to

combine that with a Tripoli compound and then for the final step I'm going to use

what's called a loose cotton wheel just a loose section here along with a white

Roush compound let's get this stuff on the buffer and see what we can do

this thing is looking pretty sharp even after just the first stage got some

Rouge still left on there but yeah that is beautiful so now it's on to the

second stage we'll be using the white compound and loose section buffing wheel

so the buffing parts pretty simple kind of show you what I'm doing here so I'm

putting the Rouge or the compound on the wheel about every 30 seconds or a minute

this thing is getting pretty glazed over and we use a rake on it to freshen it

back up and then to cut the part or to like smooth it out more aggressively you

want to move the part upward against the direction of the wheel and then to shine

the part you want to go with the direction that wheel so that's pretty

much all it takes just some elbow grease and a little bit of technique

all righty guys we are all finished up with polishing it's all gooped up with

fingerprints and Rouge right now but holy crap that thing is freaking

beautiful basically like a mirror so to finish it off get all that Rouge off of

there I will be using some aluminum polish here by mothers along with a

cotton towel that should give a nice little shine and protect it

we're all done buffing her out man this thing looks frickin sweet so stoked on

how it came out definitely not my style to have something chrome like that but

for the sake of project it was a lot of fun to bring you guys through the

process of transforming an old pile of crap triple clamps I'm 25 years old and

crusty into something like this it's a ton of fun and I would recommend you

guys pick up a set of pads pick up a set of buffing wheels whatever it is and get

your hands dirty it is an absolute blast and one last thing I was going to talk

about here is protecting the finish so whether you have something that is

polished out like this or the brushed look we had earlier it is important to

protect it or do something to maintain that finish so with this you can either

use a Polish just keep up on it with some mothers or do a clear coat if you

have something steel you're definitely going to need to clear coat it or

protect it somehow or also rust with stainless steel no worries there you

don't need to protect it or anything but for this honestly if I were keeping it

this way I would just leave it bare keep up on it with mothers to clear coat it

you're gonna end up with a little bit of haze there and if it starts chipping off

it's a mess now if you have a brushed look it's easy to keep up on it just

with a set of pads you know you can just grab a a pad and touched up by hand and

besides that just that keep your bike clean and the aluminum will stay in good

shape oh one one last thing I was going to show you guys here if you have

something stainless steel like this you can easily prep it up like that or do a

brush look so this is the Restall bracket that I sell for the CRS so this

is how it comes from the manufacturer just kind of a plain rough steel so I'm

going to take it over to bench grinder and show you guys what we can do with it

and this is actually how I prep these brackets the salad

so you can make stainless look pretty sweet too after a quick little buff I've

got a nice brushed look to it and what's nice is this stuff never rust

or corrode so that's pretty much it for today's

project I'd be an idiot if I didn't talk to you guys about safety equipment so

you definitely want to wear a respirator wear some eye protection or some gloves

maybe some hearing protection not completely necessary and then also if

you're gonna be doing lots of buffing I would recommend some sort of exhaust

system like a fan or just some sort of ventilation there now to wrap up this

video I'm gonna make it easy on you guys and link every single thing we use

throughout this video down below in the description so if you guys want to take

on a project like this it'll be pretty straightforward and you'll know what to

buy it so that includes every single buffing wheel all the compounds polish

these flap wheels Dremel Dremel attachments safety equipment every

single thing will be linked down below and the quick heads up some of the

products I use today are from my own company prime MX that includes the

cleaning pads and the flap wheels I think that's pretty much it but if you

like to support the channel go pick up some of that stuff that's it for this

video guys thank you so much for watching and I hope you all get out in

the shop and get your hands dirty after seeing this one honestly there's no

better way to customize your bike and add some personal touch then polish it

up some parts and cleaning things up besides that it's it's pretty cheap do

too so once again thank you for watching and I will see you in the next one keep

it Prime