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Midwest Sports Car Club > Cars, Motorcycles, and Boats

#1 Apr 9, 2010, 3:57 pm Hide

Indy430

Went over to brians shop today to look at the rims that came in and pick up a different car I had there for service. Took my intercoolers home to give them a good polish before they go back in the car. Brian suggested I use a little brasso so I did and they turned out pretty good! Pic attached.
#2 Apr 9, 2010, 4:52 pm Hide

DC33

whats brasso??


and them sure lookin shinny
#3 Apr 10, 2010, 12:35 am Hide

ZUL8TR

I have used a ton of Brasso in the past. I now prefer Wenol. Use that with a buffing wheel and you'll be on your way to a mirror finish in no time.
#4 Apr 10, 2010, 1:13 am Hide

RJPKRP

I used to use Brasso for polishing uip all the shiny bits on my Military uniforms.

Dan,



It's metal polish......
#5 Apr 10, 2010, 7:57 am Hide

Indy430

OK, so they did not turn out perfect but not bad, Anyone got a buffing wheel I can come over and use for about an hour? I want these to have a mirror shine.
#6 Apr 11, 2010, 1:07 am Hide

ZUL8TR

If you have a power drill, you can pic up a chuck and small, felt buffing wheel at Sears, or any other hardware store. I'd guess a $10-12 investment for the parts.

If you have a drill that plugs into the wall, go for that over a battery operated drill since the charge won't last long enough for the job. I tried with my cordless and burned through both batteries in no time. Then pulled out the corded Makita and ran that baby the rest of the day on full power.

Sorry, but this is the best shot of my wheels I have at the moment. Excuse the car, but instead of following Duz's no water wash method, I tried water and well...you see what happened...shrinkage...no guy likes at talk about that.

I did paint the center sections, but the edges are polished.

OK, so I first had to strip off the peeling clearcoat. I'll skip that since you don't need to deal with that step.

So if you are looking for a "mirror" finish, first check for any nicks. You will need to taper those nick edges via small, fine files and fine sand paper. Working through finer and finer grit paper and very fine steel wool will get you a long ways there. Lots of elbow grease.

After you think you are pretty uniform, apply the rubbing compund of your choice. As I mentioned, I prefer Wenol now and it comes in different levels of polish for fine or ultra-fine finish. If you have Brasso already, go for that and see if you get the finish you are happy with. Wear eye protection and wear clothes you don't care about as the drill WILL sling it all over you. The drill works great since you can twist it this and that to hit the bends better than you can a bench-mount.

Wash, rinse, repeat until you have the finish you are looking for. I use Mother's aluminum polish to maintain the shine. I would NOT clearcoat the intercoolers since I am clueless as to whether that would creat any heatsink issues. We need an thermodynamics engineer to answer that one. If they say its OK, you can purchase Duplicolor's Wheel Clearcoat and hit them with that.

As for Brasso, I used that all the time to keep my cymbals looking seriously sharp. That stuff would take out the drumstick marks real well. Use in a ventilated area, or wooooohoooo. I have never tried it on aluminum, only brass cymbals.
#7 Apr 11, 2010, 3:23 pm Hide

Indy430

Thanks Mark! I will give it a shot...
#8 Apr 12, 2010, 2:23 am Hide

SMS

ZUL8TR wrote
If you have a power drill, you can pic up a chuck and small, felt buffing wheel at Sears, or any other hardware store. I'd guess a $10-12 investment for the parts.

If you have a drill that plugs into the wall, go for that over a battery operated drill since the charge won't last long enough for the job. I tried with my cordless and burned through both batteries in no time. Then pulled out the corded Makita and ran that baby the rest of the day on full power.

Sorry, but this is the best shot of my wheels I have at the moment. Excuse the car, but instead of following Duz's no water wash method, I tried water and well...you see what happened...shrinkage...no guy likes at talk about that.

I did paint the center sections, but the edges are polished.

OK, so I first had to strip off the peeling clearcoat. I'll skip that since you don't need to deal with that step.

So if you are looking for a "mirror" finish, first check for any nicks. You will need to taper those nick edges via small, fine files and fine sand paper. Working through finer and finer grit paper and very fine steel wool will get you a long ways there. Lots of elbow grease.

After you think you are pretty uniform, apply the rubbing compund of your choice. As I mentioned, I prefer Wenol now and it comes in different levels of polish for fine or ultra-fine finish. If you have Brasso already, go for that and see if you get the finish you are happy with. Wear eye protection and wear clothes you don't care about as the drill WILL sling it all over you. The drill works great since you can twist it this and that to hit the bends better than you can a bench-mount.

Wash, rinse, repeat until you have the finish you are looking for. I use Mother's aluminum polish to maintain the shine. I would NOT clearcoat the intercoolers since I am clueless as to whether that would creat any heatsink issues. We need an thermodynamics engineer to answer that one. If they say its OK, you can purchase Duplicolor's Wheel Clearcoat and hit them with that.

As for Brasso, I used that all the time to keep my cymbals looking seriously sharp. That stuff would take out the drumstick marks real well. Use in a ventilated area, or wooooohoooo. I have never tried it on aluminum, only brass cymbals.


I didn't know you were a drummer. Rock on, bro!