Polished Aluminum

I have some engine parts I want to either he polished or chrome plated. I've been told to just polish and spray a clear coat and that it wouldn't tarnish. Is polished aluminum as nice as chrome?

 

Better!!!

 

In my opinion, polished aluminum is better than chrome. If it begins to corrode or get dull, you just polish it again. Chrome plated steel will eventually rust and chrome plated aluminum eventually begins to flake off, at least in my experience.

 

Clear powder coating is another option.

 

Definitely powder coat if you can afford it. It's FAR more durable than paint.

 

chrome stays looking nice a lot longer without any maintenance, and practically forever if you take care of it. But you can't "fix" it yourself like you can with aluminum

 

Polished alyminum doesn't look like chrome it looks like polished aluminum. I am not a big fan of clear coating, it gets scratched or chiped then looks like hell. When you polosh it burnishes the aluminum and does away with larger pores, just hose it down with furnature polish and let it set a day before you use it, I use lemon pledge. That will seal it up. Tne ever after that a quick wiping oe hosing will clean it. you will need to clean it good and reapply the polish once or twice a year depending on the conditions it resides in.

 

There used to be some liquid sealer available for polished aluminum to make it more durable against oxidation. Used to be advertised in all the car magazines for the billet crowd.

 

I wouldn't recommend clear coating polished aluminum because when the clear coat goes away (and it will) it looks horrible. Powdercoat clear looks OK, but it will take a little luster away from the polished finish and will eventually yellow.

Polished aluminum looks so much better than chrome. For example, a polished wheel looks beautiful, and if the same wheel was chromed, it would look cheap. That's just me.

Years ago, Zoops made a product called ZoopSeal, which was a sealer for polished surfaces. It worked great. I just called them to see if they still carried it, and they told me that the company went through a change in ownership about a year ago, and they are still a few months away from re-releasing the product with some improvements.

For a interm fix until then, try a quality paste wax designed for paint. It'll want to collect dust, but the wax seals the aluminum pores and makes the polish last much longer.

 

I ve never heard about this. So lemon pledge act as a wax ? What s the difference between using a regular wax like Turttle Wax or any other brand ?

 

If it's steel, chrome it. If it's aluminum, polish it. If you burn a good initial polish on your part and it's a decent grade aluminum, such as 6061, it will stay polished longer than you think. Routine maintenance, with a good polish, ( Heavy Metal, Semichrome, Mother's, etc.) will keep it shiney. Treat it as you would good paint. Chroming a nice polished aluminum part is like putting carpet on a nice solid oak floor.

 

Polish, then two coats of rainX. Works good and is cheap. Re coat as needed.

 

Our Power Seal will help slow down the oxidation process on polished metals. I'm not telling you that you'll never polish again, but certainly less frequently.

 

I have no idea what the difference is. I have used mothers and simi chrome and they both change the color where as the furniture polish doesn't.

I am sure that the people that sell aluminum polish don't want anyone to know about the furniture polish and that the furniture polish people don't know of this usage and for sure don't advertise on the auto rags.

 

Some friends of mine have polished airplanes, and thats where I heard about the lemon pledge. Seems to work,their planes always look fresh polished.

 

i've used lemon pledge for years. start using it on my motorcycle so the bugs wouldn't stick then on my cars works great for me

 

Since I drove semi's for over 20 years I took pride in the appearance of my truck. That included everything that was aluminum was polished. I found that after a few washes the aluminum would start to slightly dull. My solution was when I waxed the truck, I used Nevr-Dull to go over the aluminum and evrything would look like a mirror. Quick fast and great results, plus nevr-dull is cheap and easy to use.

 

Thanks guys. I polish a lot of parts, so I ll try Lemon Pledge. I suppose we can find it in Canada, as it s a Johnson product.
I ve tried Colinitte 850 also, it seems to work quite well.
I read every topic about polishing, and am still looking for the "magic" inexpensive product

 

lets see polish it means keeping it polished..........**** just sand blast it and use carb cleaner.........mjuch easier IMHO

 

Sure .. Or drive a Hyundai, made of plastic. No more trouble
Some of us like the look of polished parts

 

I've tryed a lot of things, I'll never powder coat with clear, or use a spray over clear again. now i'm useing rain -X

 

The plane owners use a product called ''Nuvite". It seems to work well.

 

I love my polished aluminum! Has anyone tried "Shark hide"? Not sure how it's spelled. Supposd to seal polished metal long term...