More fun with mirror polishing: Gleipnir

[ratfacedudeguy]

Before and after by halves:


Fresh out of polishing:


Nature shot:


Thoughts? Concerns? Critiques? Revelry?

[naoki]

Love it

Nothing better than a mirror polished YYR

[AlisRIOSteff]

Hope you didn't scratch it on the rock, lol.

[ratfacedudeguy]

Lol nah I took extra care. I was just thinking that it's due for another polishing anyway so it's not a big deal either way.

[rogertc1]

Looks really good. i always like raw aluminum. Do you use semi-chrome polish...I find it works really well and leaves a silicone protectant or residue.
Roger

[ratfacedudeguy]

I use Mothers Mag polish and it's given me pretty good results so far. Do you have any recommendations for a name brand of semi-chrome polish to look into? It sounds pretty interesting.

[StillinKansasCity]

I think he's talking about Simichrome, which is a brand of polish.

[ratfacedudeguy]

Ah gotcha

[Preinfalk]

MY EYES!!!





looks awesome man!

[ratfacedudeguy]

Haha thanks to all that have posted. I'm currently working on refining it a bit. It needed a repolishing and some stuff just isn't up to my standards of total satisfaction. Hopefully I'll have some good stuff to report in the near future.

[jasonwongzero]

Polishing is such a relaxing and fun activity imo.

[ratfacedudeguy]

Got an update after a bit of refinement. I'm still planning on taking more pics in natural daylight but I wanted to catch it while it's fresh.

http://s957.photobucket.com/albums/ae58/ratfacedudeguy/Gleipnir%20Update/

[StillinKansasCity]

Do you have any photos from before you started? I knew that Mother's is abrasive, but Jesus that's shiny. Any sandpaper action up in that B?

Here's the part where Kyle looks at this thread and reminds everyone that it's not actually a mirror polish at all and really, just decent at best.

[ratfacedudeguy]

Hahahaha yeah I was waiting for that. I didn't get any photos from the absolute beginning but I can tell you that when I first got it, it was very tarnished, and for the few hours I had it pre-polishing its nickname was "swamp throw" lol. It was pretty damn ugly, but grinded really well actually.

EDIT: I guess I did manage to squeeze one picture in but it didn't come out so well. If you look hard enough you can see some of the tarnish spots on the face of the closer rim and on the wing of the opposite side. It was pretty nasty in person though.
 

As for the actual process, at first I sanded it all over with 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper but there were some ripples left in the wings and in the hubs. Then I screwed up the hubs by dry sanding it over with 2000 grit putting some permanent ripples in (learned my lesson from that one). Finally tonight I finished it off with 2500 and 3000 grit wetsanding and a final go-over with Mothers Mag. I have some new techniques in mind to make my next conquest even better but I somehow need to get ahold of a fresh raw YYR first...