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Polishing A Clutch Cover To Mirror Finish


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I was wondering how hard is it to strip the paint off clutch cover using paint striper and to polish the aluminum to a mirror finish. I'll try using mothers aluminum polish and a drill bit buffer. Any Ideas or would it be wrong to expose the aluminum? Here's a pick of what I'm trying to do:

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Theres nothing wrong with exposing the aluminum. It will need to be cleaned and or buffed to keep it looking bright and shinny like when its firt buffed, a little more maintenance. Look in the immages section, there is a how-to on buffing. I would get a dremmel or better yet a Roto-zip if you dont have one. Use a paint stripper to remove the paint so you dont sctatch up the surface. Scratches and inperfections have to be sanded out of the surface before you can buff it. Use an orbital sander and/or a detail sander to sand the surface smooth. Use the smallest grit sandpaper you can to get out the imperfections and achieve a smoothe surface. Probably start with 320 then go to 400, then to 600. Nest buff it with a sewn cloth buffing wheel. The 8" bench grinder ones kick ass but you need about 3/4 hp bench grinder to run it or 1/2 hp for a 6" wheel. Youl still need the dremmel with a 2" cloth wheel and 1" felt wheels to get in the tight places. It could possibly all be done with the dremmel. Get some buffing compound (Tripoli) at possibly sears or I get it from harbor freight to use with the buffing wheel.

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LOL, It's gonna take a little more than just some paint stripper and some Mothers polish. Meat Head did an EXCELLENT post on how to polish things, and it applies to pretty much anything aluminum. You can find it here...

http://www.bansheehq.com/forums/index.php?...=polishing&st=0

 

and

 

http://www.bansheehq.com/forums/index.php?...38&hl=polishing

 

Hope this helps :)

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When I did mine, I used my 8" buffing wheels and white rouge and tripoli. It was not easy to get into all the nooks and/or crannies. Plus just sanding it down to a 400 grit was a PITA. Its worth it, and its not hard per se, its just time consuming to get it right. Mine isn't quite what I wanted, but I don't feel like draining my tranny and going through all that right now to do it again.

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The best advice I can give is the more time you spend getting it sanded down PERFECTLY smooth the easier it will be to polish and the better looking it will turn out. If the paint stripper doesn't work on removing the paint, then use the brillow pad looking abasive wheel (the finer grit lighter colored softer ones, not the dark coarse grit harder ones) and a drill or grinder.

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It seems like this side clutch side plate isn't too roughed up and shouldn't be too much work to polish. I also bought a aluminum polishing kit through http://www.caswellplating.com that should help it turn out alot better. I loved the link to Meat_Head's posting It was really really helpful and i plan on doing my cylinders too. THANKS MEAT HEAD for the help.

 

P.S those cylinders you did meat head, gave me a big one LOL. you the man!

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