How To Polish Your Compressor Cover.

[dr_frankenstein]

Okay so I have gotten many PMs asking how this is done and why there is such cost involved for making something shiney.... So I will show you guys how its done so anybody here can do it theselves!

Thanks to Turbo Joe - He was the first to take the plunge for a Buff job and since he provided his cover for us to all learn on, We thank Joe and his polish was on the house!

Todays approach is one of the average home mechanic, one that has the skills but maybe not so much the funds... So were go Budget Special.... Today were doing it with ALL HARBOR FREIGHT SUPPLIES AND EQUIPMENT!

PART 1.

Okay so Pic 1 shows most of the basic equipment you may need... as you polish you will find that some things work better then others and you will develop your own tools for corners or curves. polishing is very time consuming, and requires a patient person.... but the results can be worth it. So we have bits of old used sand paper, a Dremel with a small ball stone on the end, a B&D "Mouse" palm sander, a Harbor Freight Die Grinder with a Harbor Freight Buffs ( Mushroom, Spiral sown and Felt Bobs come as a kit), and several random bits I use for corners or flats. Paint Sticks, Hotel Keys, old Rubber Fuel Line, 3/8" extensions, etc..etc.. can all be used to help the process, this will be up to you to determine what works for you. Now the Dremel, is a tool to be easy with... it can move alot of material fast (fast for polishing) and make work harder then it needs to be with excessive gouges or scratches. So go slow with this tool and use gentle pressure - rub your stone on a piece of soap stone BEFORE you start to work your aluminum.... this will help prevent the aluminum from clogging up the stone and keeping the grinding clean rather then smearing alumium chips and making gouges.

Pics 2, 3, and 4 show what were starting with, the volute is fairly smooth! YAY! somebody has already done alot of the work getting all the hard edges and cutting alot of the sand cast finish off. Pic 2 shows the surface upclose, and it becomes visable the scratches, scars and pits from the casting of the cover, then the smoothing that was done before... Pic 3 shows the area inside the volute.... still very rough and AS CAST still... a hard hard area to clean up... this is where that hard manual labor comes in... dont think the Dremel will solve all these problems... it will make matters worse by removing too much to fast in the wrong areas... this is typically a hand worked area!

So we have our piece... we have our supplies... we have most of the equpiment.... LETS START!

Step 1 ... Time to wash your piece. we all here know how to wash a part. I shouldnt have to explain much more then that... Use lots of DAWN or simular grease cutting soap to remove as much OILS AND GREASE as possible... this goes for your hands too. I myself like to boil the part for a few minutes in hot water to help release the oils. Use clean lint free paper towels or an old cotten T-shirt or pair of CLEAN cho-nies to dry. Clean NON-OILED air is great too!

Now the item is clean.... Take some nice HEAVY DUCT TAPE and cover all non polished and critical areas. all areas INSIDE the cover are OFF LIMITS PERIOD... you dont want the sand paper, the wheel, the compound the dust, none of that junk in there... its asking for trouble down the line. this is an abrasive process and neither turbos or engines like the stuff from the polishing process.

TO THE NEXT PART!

 

[dr_frankenstein]

PART 2

OKAY!

Your part is clean, and your areas are all protected and covered! Now were ready to begin the sanding. I prefer Old Sand paper.... simply because the sharp edges have mellowed out and the paper is nice and flexible. Try to spend a few dollars more on the cloth backed sand paper... it molds and last much better as well as softens as the polish happens.

Step 2..... Starting at 40 and 60 grit to cut down the the as cast areas avoid using too much pressure so you dont push to many deep scratches into the material. Slowly work your area in, and stop often and sand with a well worn piece of 80 after a few minutes to check your work and highlight low and high spots in the material.

Pic 1 shows me using a piece of fuel line and a well worn piece of 60 grit to help get into that tight area of the volute. Just keep on sanding and dont give up.... this is where most people start to get annoyed with the polishing process. Stop every 30 to 40 minutes and re-wash your part... not as heavy, but lightly to help prevent dust and sandpaper grit from gouging and causing excessive scratches. Pic 2 shows some of the little do-dads and helpers i have made to help sand corners and tight spots... Paint Sticks and Hotel Keys!!! Hotel Keys have many a wonders in the Garage... sanding, spreading bondo, quick go/no-go gauges... etc etc. Pic 3 shows how tese items can be used to fit the spot... if you look closely to the paint stick you can see multiple layers of sand paper used to make the stick just "fat" enough to fit the particular spot im in.

OKAYS! we have been sanding.... and if your following this process with your own cover you should be at this point in about 1.5 hours..... WHAT! ya... I said 1.5 hours.... you should already be into this item 2 hours.... unless your a baddass sanding or a genius with the Dremel.... OR.... sometimes you get a really really nice cast part.. and its pretty smooth to begin with. Pic 4 shows our results so far! Not bad eh? Big change from the as cast we seen before!

TO THE NEXT PART!

 

[dr_frankenstein]

PART 3

OKAY

So we got our part rough sanded... Most of the casting flash and sand marks have been smoothed away, all that we have left is to smooth away the scratches and marks from our previous work. The work should now begin to take its appearance and start to look like something worth polishing.

STEP 3

Starting with some 80 and hand sanding our way up to to 220... we want to smooth out the surface... making the scratches from the progressivly finer and finer paper all follow the same direction.... which usually is the direction that follows the shape of the part.

Pic 1 shows how far hand sanding has gotten us and if you look closely you can see the sanding marks tend to follow the shape of the volute, since your fingers will want to naturally want to go that direction. However your busy little fingers can create waves and grooves in what your polishing.... Just like in autobody they yell at you when you dont use a sanding block! Pic 2 shows this result very clearly, you can see the highs and the lows very clearly. A sanding block is a little cumbersome and a pain when you have lots of corners or curves, and i suggest you should try to "Feel" the surface as you sand. if it feels like your sanding a groove, you probably are.

Now that we have gotten to 220 by hand, we can take a step back and take a breath! lol it gets a little easier from here. We can finally use some power tools again! yay! pulling out my little B&D Mouse, im going to slap on some 400 and start working my way up from there. In Pic 3 you can see the shine starting to come through from using the 400 then 600 then 800. But mind you, there will be lots of hand sanding in this process in all the corners the mouse doesnt get.... so dont think its all gravy here!

You have done your light power sanding, and now the surface is pretty smooth! it should be giving off a nice brilliance but not quite with the reflection of clarity.... more just brilliant silver like a brushed stainless sink. Now to really begin to smooth the metal. using a GREEN Scotch brite thats seen some duty a few other times, I repeat the hand sanding process again. And again with the Mouse power sander with a Scotch Brite pad on it as well. In Pic 4 you can really begin to see the brilliance of the metal now that it is really starting to smooth out. Real Brite..... yet, not quite clear - means were finaly getting somewhere!

At this point, we have spent another 30-45 minutes... toss in a few washings in between to keep the grime low and to avoid sweat or hand grease contamination. so were sitting at about 2.5 to 2.75 hours on this one cover alone.... Ya... it sucks.

Pic 5 . Here we are looking at the basic polishing supplies....

The yellow container is Flour.... regular ol flour... this will keep oils from hands and part under control. but be cautious.... flour itself can be a mild abrasive.

The Black bar on the top is Black Rouge Cutting Compound. This is for cutting on Steel and Stainless. We wont be using this here.

The Reddish/Brown bar in the middle is the Red Rouge or Tripoli Compound. This is your first cutting compound for when you first begin to cut on the aluminum. This compound is kinda specific to the wheel its used on, since it is a cutting compound... its almost useless on a actual "polishing" wheel since it will just scratch again... and again... and again....

The White bar thats broken at the bottom is Coloring Compound. This is for the final cuts, after the Tripoli has done its work before. This compound isnt as particular about wheel choice as the tripoli, however since it is for bringing in the brilliance and clarity of the polished metal out, it does little to nothing for swirls or scratches still in the surface.

TO THE NEXT PART!

 

[dr_frankenstein]

PART 4

Well, its been a long journey to this point... were like 3 hours knee deep in this cover and its time to make some real progress to show~! its time to begin the actual Polish!

Step 4

So in the last section we covered the sanding, the flour, and the compounds.... now lets look at the wheels and the buffer.
In pic 1 were looking at my now 10 year old Harbor Freight 6" buffer.... this thing spends more time in the shed now that i have my 12" Baldor buffer, but this ol unit has done the trick for years on years... so dont be afraid of trying the Harbor Freight stuff. Keeping in with the Budget approach were using for equipment and supplys, the 2 wheels on the buffer were also purchased at harbor freight.

Wheel 1, the one closest to you on the left side of the buffer, this is a 6" Spiral Sown Buff. This buff is pretty stiff, and is designed to cut the metal. This Wheel removes the scratches and swirls from the sanding process, and is generally used with any of the 3 compounds for the first couple of passes on the part to begin the smoothing and cleaning up the surface. For aluminum like were doing, use the red Tripoli compound.

Wheel 2, The one furthest away and on the right of the buffer. This is an 8" Loose Flannel Buff. This buff as you can see is very loose and floppy (giggity) and feels rather soft. This is your true buffing wheel... This is where the brilliance and the clarity of the metal will be brought out from. This wheel is really only useful with one compound... and that is the White Coloring compound. using it with other compounds really doesnt have much of an effect when using this wheel... its too soft to force the metal to cut.

Now there are some tips and tricks to the buffing wheel itself so we will cover a few. A BRAND NEW wheel will cut like ass - so practice on a few scrap pieces to develop and "Load" the wheel. Later on in the life of the wheel, you will need to RAKE the wheel every so often to keep it from being over loaded this can be done with a file card or an actual buffing rake. These symptoms and problems may appear as you buff and if you have issues i will guide you the best I can.

Now moving on from the Buffer, we can start the process.

Pic 2 shows me loading the wheel with Red Tripoli compound. Notice the generous amount of flour on my hands... but no soo much that its everywhere. Remember a light dusting of flour on your hads is good to keep the part from smearing with hand oils, shop oils, and any other contaminants. When loading the wheel, you want to apply enough to where the color is obviously well spread on the edges of the wheel as well as the center.

ACTUAL BUFFING!!!! YAY!!!

Pic 3 shows us starting the buff process on the part! you will want to start out with the stiff spiral wheel and the tripoli compound to remove all of the scratches and swirls from sanding. notice how low and the position of the part to the buffing wheel, this is a critical part of the operation... and a sense of "FEEL" needs to be developed as the wheel hits the part, you dont want tooo much pressure or too sharp of an angle. too much pressure will burn the surface, and too steep of an angle will tend to make the part want to rip out of your hands and zing across the shop.

REMEMBER SAFTEY FIRST! GOGGLES AND DUST MASK A MINIMUM.

Pic 4, as you buff you will feel heat pass into the part... watch this heat... it should be rather warm to the touch but not hot. if you find an area your buffing getting too hot - move to a different spot and keep the heat even across the part. On thin items this is a super hard part because heat can warp the final item and distort the clarity of the polish. As you can see in Pic 4 the heat is allowing the compound to smear around.... this is good as it means the heat is right in the part and your applying the right amount of pressure. Your going to want to work this smear around.... this is the actual cutting of the compound. you will find a point when the smear seems like its just grease getting pushed around..... you need more compound... reload the wheel with more tripoli compound. stop every few minute to reload your compound. An overly loaded wheel will sling compound everywhere... if you get to this point RAKE your wheel and gently reload.

Pic 5......... wow..... what alot of work so far! so another 30 to 45 minutes with this compound/wheel and now you can see the brilliance is beginning to show! FINALLY! But this aint just the end, if you look closely in the pic 5 you can see that the shine is stll almost kinda cloudy, this is the swirls and scratches that the Tripoli compound and the Spiral sown wheel produce......

But now your almost to your goal! dont quit, I bet there are plenty of corners and grooves to work... keep it up!

TO THE NEXT PART!!!!!!!

 

[dr_frankenstein]

THE FINAL PART!!!!!!

Okays..... we have spent nearly 4 hours on this cover.... if not 5 already because of the occasional washes in between to maintain the cleanlyness of the part. its finally time to start the last buff and begin the coloring process. here is where that magic happens.

PART 5

Pic 1. Here we are loading the White Coloring compound on the Loose Flannel Buff and we will repeat the buffing process on the item again as we did with the last wheel. HOWEVER.... you wont need to apply nearly as much pressure... in fact... you want a much lighter pressure since the "flaps" of this wheel are loose, too much pressure can cause these flaps to pull the part right out of your hand!

Continue this process until your desired shine is achieved.... ocassionally you will need to go over a spot with 800 or 1000 grit because theres a stubborn scratch or swirl... just re-buff those areas and proceed on.

Pic 2 here is a quick break point in buffing to see how the shine is progressing using the White Coloring compound.

THERE IS A POINT.... When you have to call it good though.... I am super super OCD.... and can buff for hours upon hours trying to get the perfect mirror finish..... In reality..... this is impossible.... aluminum is a soft metal and it wont hold that extreme brilliance for more then a few moments. So buff to where you feel good about it, where it looks damn good.... but dont kill yourself over it. There will be scratches, there will be swirls, there will be pits. Just the nature of the beast... you want perfection, polish Stainless Steel.

Okay... so its been 5 hours... the part is done, and the final wash is complete. here is your item... and i hope you like the shine!

I hope this also shows why a professional company charges soo much for this stuff... its a sucky job. consider this next time you think the cost of buffing is rediculous. in reality its right on par!

Hope this helps everyone! please PM or let me know if you need help!

THANKS!
A.j.

 

[Sydwyndr]

That's awesome... Great Job!!

Shane, is there anyway that we can create a "how to" forum for items such as this??

 

[longball]

Shane, is there anyway that we can create a "how to" forum for items such as this??

There is a "How To" section in the" General Turbo Buick Tech" Forum. It is the very first thing.

 

[fastblackracing]

Awesome tutorial Dr. The info is great and I will put it to use in the near future. I now have a better understanding of why I just paid the china-man mold polisher up the street a buck-fifty to do my housing, thanks for taking time to post all of this.

 

[VaderGN]

What would something like this cost on the average having it done by a pro?

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[chitownz87gn]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[turbojoe1]

Thank you very much dr_frankenstein. As stated i did start the work my self but through in the towel after a day of sanding. But everyone already knows what a stock cast cover looks like.

Now my cover sets the bar for everything else in the engine bay. Simply amazing, i couldn't believe my eyes when i received my cover back from you. I can literally see my reflection in it. So if i ever get something in my eye while tinkering under the hood, i can just use my turbo as a mirror.

And let me add, i currently have, owned and purchased many new polished parts. But compared to this cover, those were just polished to a shine. This cover is "mirror polished" its almost a shame i have to use it now. It was wall art in my garage for a few days, and i really like the look of having a polished snail on the wall, so i may start collecting covers just for that. Seriously i really appreciate the small stuff. Dr Frankenstein went above and beyond what i was expecting. Very easy to work with, easy to get ahold of, and takes his work personally.


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

 

[dr_frankenstein]

What would something like this cost on the average having it done by a pro?

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

It generally runs between 125 and 150 to have the average compressor cover polished by a professional.

Though i will agree, a professional can do this same job in about an hour, the difference is the size of the machine and the quality of the polishing supplies... this makes a huge difference in total time when the cutting action is much much heavier and the abrasive action is faster. But the end result for this speed is that cost that is shown, because they have to cover the overhead of the equipment as well as labor and shop cost. Using my own personal high end equipment i can usually do this same job in about 2 hours, but im picky and OCD.

 

[dr_frankenstein]

Thank you very much dr_frankenstein. As stated i did start the work my self but through in the towel after a day of sanding. But everyone already knows what a stock cast cover looks like.

Now my cover sets the bar for everything else in the engine bay. Simply amazing, i couldn't believe my eyes when i received my cover back from you. I can literally see my reflection in it. So if i ever get something in my eye while tinkering under the hood, i can just use my turbo as a mirror.

And let me add, i currently have, owned and purchased many new polished parts. But compared to this cover, those were just polished to a shine. This cover is "mirror polished" its almost a shame i have to use it now. It was wall art in my garage for a few days, and i really like the look of having a polished snail on the wall, so i may start collecting covers just for that. Seriously i really appreciate the small stuff. Dr Frankenstein went above and beyond what i was expecting. Very easy to work with, easy to get ahold of, and takes his work personally.


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app

Thank you for the Kind words Joe, I really appreciate hearing you are enjoying the cover and it met up to your standards. I went back and forth on the day to ship your part because i kept asking my wife if she thought it was enough or if it needed another final pass to bring out as much shine as possible... LOL it drives her nuts sometimes! But I do take pride in my work and i put my best effort out for the members and leadership we have on this fantastic forum so anything I can do to give back to the Buick community i want to try and be a part of it.

 

[VaderGN]

Thanks dr_frankenstein


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app