Polishing aluminium

Back in my youth I nearly always used Brasso and plenty of elbow grease because I couldn't afford Solvol! I always thought it was overrated as I got very good results with Brasso. Now I'm older and much, much richer (LOL!!!) I have a couple of bench grinders with buffing and polishing wheels which will get ally like chrome! I needed them to do my own pre-chroming prep. It saves money at the platers!

Beware the little light grey spots visible after polishingthough. These are actually small pockets of corrosion which a high speed polishing mop will sometimes pluck out to leave a bright, fine orange-peel effect.

Sell the fibreglass tank and get hold of a proper steel one that doesn't dissolve in Ethanol! I'm doing the same as you - aiming for concours - with my 1959 '99'. (As you might see elsewhere on this site). I have some "Before" photos in the gallery - 1959 '99'. There are no "After" photos yet as it's still in pieces, although largely restored. The photos show it after about 37 years of neglect (by me!) Any "Before" pics of yours?

Cheers, Lionel

Previously wrote:

Hi, I am a fairly new member on here so please forgive me if what I write is already known by some members, I am retired now but back in the 1960's I worked for Hooley's motor cycle division at Castle Gate in Nottingham, they were the main agents for Norton, Triumph, Villiers, Panther, Frances Barnet, Arial, and a lot lot more besides, today many old bikes back then went for very little in comparison to today's prices, forgive me for going on a bit but the reason for this message is to let some of you into an old secret about polishing aluminium, back then an old chap who worked part time shown me how to get the aluminium to shine like chrome, what he did was first to get apiece of newspaper and wet it with Brasso, then he would rub it onto the surface until it went black, then he used Solval Autosol, he rubbed that all over the surface until it was almost dry, then with a soft cloth he polished it up to a very high sheen, over the years I have never found anything to match the finish, at the moment I am peparing to restore a 1960-63 Norton 600 ss whichI purchased from off Ebay, it came from down South and when it arrived at my home it looked in a very sad state, most of it had been stripped apart from the engine, gearbox, forks and frame, the mudguards were a bit worse for wear being aluminium and very tatty, a racing fibre glass tank was perched on top of the frame and not secured down along with a bucket seat, these items are not wanted, a set back gear change and foot rest were also on which are not wanted either, my aim is to fully restore this once beautiful machine back to the original factory design and colour, I have managed to aquire most of what is needed after many hours of searching, if anyone needs parts then do try a firm by the name of Gaggs and Son here in Nottingham, they have been around since the early 1900's, I dealt with them way back in the 60's and again more recently, well sorry to have gone on a bit but I do hope some of the information will help some of you in whatever your quest is.

hello I had a 99ss cafe racer once it was the best I thrashed the nuts of it , I have see me shoot down the A1 toping over a 100 mph and when I got to malory pary then entered for and race and finshed in the top ten , then Thrashed back home at 100 MPH , and it just cam e back for more ? but back the you could pick parts up allmost any where and they were chep too ? But Not Now there like gold dust , but what a bike ? the standard Paint work was Dove grey ,and polychromatic grey and two tone grey seat cover , Your Anna J

Hi Patricia. I've always been a fan of polishing the alloy on ny bike I've owned to a a near chrome finish.

The only productI have ever used is "Solvol Autosol". It does require some effort though, not so much when appllying it as the paste acts as a lubricant under the polishing cloth, it's the final removal after it has gone black, then polishing offto leave the raw bright metal, free from any streaks or smears.

Just recently, I bought a set of rotarymops and polishing compounds. Ihave to say that when done in stages and finishing with the soft cloth mop and BLUE polish, that is supposed to be similar to Jewellers Rouge, the finish can be taken to another higherlevelthat really does resemble chrome as Lionelalso says.If Solvol is then later used on it, the coarser Solvol introduces a slight background of near microscopic scouring marks that just takes the edge of the finish compared to the rotary soft mop and Blue compound. There are liquidCHROME polishes that maybe a better choice at this stage as I think they are much less abrasive, HOLTS make one.

I also recommend when usingSOLVOL polish to try different cloth materials. My choice is for a thickish, slightly hard cottonfabric, possibly curtain fabric. If you use soft "T shirt" type cotton, it just does not cut hard enough. The advantage of a coarser cloth is that is removes the blackened past that much more quickly and without smearing so much. You can always finish off with the softer cotton.

I have also found, like Lionel has, that buffing old alloy sand castings such as the timing cover, you can come across tiny pin holes, that are either caused by corrosion or more likely tiny gas holes that have developed in the casting proces. Unfortunately, with my attempts to get the cover perfect, I just ran into more and more of these tiny holes and after tens of hours of polishing attempts ruined the cover by neary wearing it away! So be careful and try to get the alloy polished as soon as it can reach perhaps just a 90% good finish as taking it down more and you will start to uncover the tiny holes. It really is a gamble as you do not know if they are there untill you come across them and then it's too late.

Regards

Les

Depends on the corrosion. Very fine wet and dry if its really bad followed by solvol. Once you have a good finish Colour Restorer isn't a bad aluminium polish to maintain the shine. Very cheap especially if you find a half empty bottle on the shelf in the garage which has been there longer than you can remember. )

John.

Previously wrote:

Hi Patricia. I've always been a fan of polishing the alloy on ny bike I've owned to a a near chrome finish.

The only productI have ever used is "Solvol Autosol". It does require some effort though, not so much when appllying it as the paste acts as a lubricant under the polishing cloth, it's the final removal after it has gone black, then polishing offto leave the raw bright metal, free from any streaks or smears.

Just recently, I bought a set of rotarymops and polishing compounds. Ihave to say that when done in stages and finishing with the soft cloth mop and BLUE polish, that is supposed to be similar to Jewellers Rouge, the finish can be taken to another higherlevelthat really does resemble chrome as Lionelalso says.If Solvol is then later used on it, the coarser Solvol introduces a slight background of near microscopic scouring marks that just takes the edge of the finish compared to the rotary soft mop and Blue compound. There are liquidCHROME polishes that maybe a better choice at this stage as I think they are much less abrasive, HOLTS make one.

I also recommend when usingSOLVOL polish to try different cloth materials. My choice is for a thickish, slightly hard cottonfabric, possibly curtain fabric. If you use soft "T shirt" type cotton, it just does not cut hard enough. The advantage of a coarser cloth is that is removes the blackened past that much more quickly and without smearing so much. You can always finish off with the softer cotton.

I have also found, like Lionel has, that buffing old alloy sand castings such as the timing cover, you can come across tiny pin holes, that are either caused by corrosion or more likely tiny gas holes that have developed in the casting proces. Unfortunately, with my attempts to get the cover perfect, I just ran into more and more of these tiny holes and after tens of hours of polishing attempts ruined the cover by neary wearing it away! So be careful and try to get the alloy polished as soon as it can reach perhaps just a 90% good finish as taking it down more and you will start to uncover the tiny holes. It really is a gamble as you do not know if they are there untill you come across them and then it's too late.

Regards

Les

It's good to know my well-used 99 will provide hours and hours and hours of fun for some future owner who likes polishing... I just like riding the beast, rain or shine.

P.S. Hairy baler twine and Solvol is quite good on fork legs for getting the worst off. I do make some sort of effort for the MoT.

Please help me what's that: Brasso?

Thanks,

Fritz

Previously wrote:

what he did was first to get apiece of newspaper and wet it with Brasso, then he would rub it onto the surface until it went black,

Hi Fritz,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brasso

Tells you all about it.

May be one of those strangeBritishthings.

Regards

Tony

brasso is just a very fine rubing past suspended in oil