rubbing compond

[sickbayer]

Any know the best rubbing compond for aluminum..? I want to get some scratches out...

[saltyseadog]

iv used rouge on big alu. truck wheels. its alot of dirty work but makes it shine like chrome. it took the scraches out but i took off alot of alu. how deep are the scratches?

[hewesfisher]

Really depends on what you want to do and like saltyseadog said, rouge might be best. I will echo his comment about it being a lot of dirty work, I buffed our 16' Sportsman prior to trading it last spring, and that was the last time I plan on doing something like that, way too much work and had black wool everywhere. I pulled wool fibers out of my eyes for two days!

If you're just trying to remove scratches and not polish everything, start with the mildest compound that will do the job. If you don't get the result you're looking for, step up a grade and see how that works. I buffed our Sportsman with 3M Perfect-It 3000 automotive compound and it worked but I could have reduced my efforts by going to a more aggressive compound. Since I had plenty of the 3M compound it's what I used.

[fishing collector]

You might try 1000 to 2000 grit finish sand paper on a sanding pad then buff it with some 3m compound then some rouge to make it shine. You can get all the compounds you need on ebay for decent prices. The new foam polishing pads by Mothers for aluminum that are made for automobile wheels will work great. Don't worry about using the fine sandpaper. The scratches made by it are so fine that they will buff right out. I owned an automobile detail shop for 15 years and have never had problems smoothing out aluminum and making it shine like a new dime! Some types of aluminum won't shine as well as others due to the amount of other metals used to make it. But you should be happy with the Mothers finishing products. I buffed out my little Sears 12 footer and it came out great. Good Luck, it's a dirty job but if you use goggles and a mask, you will do fine. Using compounds made for aluminum polishing will make the job easier. Look around for them....they aren't hard to find. Google works well!

[Anonymous]

For salt pits....... yes, I've seen them first hand, start with Scotchbrite green and go to red then white or just go with the green and finish with Flitz and a lot of wax. Buffing pits will only leave you with buffed pits.

[Bodofish]

Or grind them out and power coat and be done with it forever.