Guide Sanding and Polishing Metal : mirror finish?

Hi,
Are there any guides anywhere on how to go about sanding, polishing and buffing metal to a mirror finish? I dont know anyone to ask about these things, and i cant find any useful info on the net.

Anything would help. thnx

 

MAn... You gotta read the project logs!!!

Shiny silence....

This guy has done exactly what you are wanting...


Dont drool on your keyboard!

 

so how exactly did he do it? i read through the topic here and ont he other forum that someone linked

 

You basically need to do the following.


1. Strip the metal/aluminum of any paint(or anodization) with roughish grit sandpaper
2. Work your way up sandpapers, using like, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000.. (wetsanding with the higher grit seems to help)
3. Use some rubbing compound to finish it off, with either your bare hands or a buffer.. hell, just read the directions on the rubbing compound bottle


If you've done everything right, you'll see something similar to below:

Before:


After:

 

oo would it turn out better than chrome painting witha mirror finish? i was sanding some bondo down on my side panel and i cut through the paint and the bare metal is already kind of mirrory, not very shinny but ya i was just useing 220

 

You can also get the panels sandblasted to strip the anodising off. I did it with my Maze4 GPU block.



From the sandblasters. I then wet and dry sanded using 800, 1000, 1200 and 1600 grit, once you reach the 1200+ mark you'll see the scratches start to go. You then simply get an abrasive polish such as Brasso or in this case Autosol and polish until you can't no more



Result
I'm sure coolmiester will be able to help you out alot more, i only did it on a very small scale compared to his Wavemaster

 

After I sand the case down to lets say 2000grit.... do i clean it off before polishing? If so with what?

Then do I use the applicator bonnet that came with my buffer? I then apply polish to the bonnet? How long do I polish it like this? Till it drys?

Then do I clean the surface before buffing? With what? How long do I buff for?

 

Once you've sanded down i'd wash the crap off with water and some detergent. Then get yourself some buffing attachments for your orbital sander etc. and polish until you get the finish you like. IIRC, coolmiester used Peek polish, it's like toothpaste apparantly.

 

I have a buffer machine already... and I already purchased Peek polish.

 

ya do what mace said, i used 80, 220 and 300 somethin before 400 and i have scratch marks that wont go away after using rubbing compound, but its my fault since i used too low of a grit, but you cant see unless ure up close

heres my pics of the lil part i polished, too bad i cant do the whole case cuz i used bondo dammit!

 

i wonder if that will work on steel, i was planning on chrome a case, pheraps i should try to polish it.

 

that is steel, thick steel too

it works

 

Okay, i am purchasing a 4" sander polisher... i need your help... which of the following accessories should I purchase?

 

Not recommended if you're going for that mirror finish. Although it might be nice to use that to get past a lot of scratches and paint, hand sanding seems to work a lot better. I'd advise getting a sanding block too. The only trick to a mirror finish on metal, is elbow grease.

 

Resize your Pictures dammit! *TOO HYUUGE* Heck, just a link to them would do..

- H.

PS: I suffer from 56k.