I fully explain all of the tools for polishing, and demonstrate a finished example in this video. I attempt to share everything I know about these tools that you need to know in order to be successful if you've never done this before. This surface has already been meticulously prepared prior to the beginning of this polishing, and I believe the results shown in this video are a blinging example of why I do all of it.
It takes an immense amount of time to create a show car's engine. Attention is given to the most minute details. I want to give the automotive community something different with this series for all the 1%ers looking to level up their build. Nobody understands this more than my supporters on Patreon who have made it possible for me to document such a time consuming process and create a video series that collectively shows all of the work in 1/100th the runtime that it actually takes to do this. If these are the kinds of jobs you want to know more about, consider sponsoring my efforts at / jafromobile . All proceeds go directly toward funding the projects I show here. Will work for car parts and future projects. That's how it works. Sponsorship includes early ad-free previews of new videos, extra content and better access to me than KZfaq's comment system.
I don't demonstrate every single tool that I show in this video. I just use what we need for the rough cut on what I'm polishing. All of the other tools will get used in the next video on this topic because I have piles of other examples to complete a fully polished engine. None of those other examples are as difficult to complete as this cylinder head, and I won't be standing over them reviewing them all again. Each stage will require different tools in order to get the coverage and penetration required... but by the end of this video, nobody would have any questions regarding what to use, or how to approach it most efficiently.
Now the controversy of Step 8: Once polishing begins, it never stops. Once step 8 is finished, you'll know how to do everything else to finish the job, but it still isn't fully polished. There are at least 3 stages to polishing aluminum. Black rouge is often considered too coarse for the first polishing stage on aluminum, many insist you should always start with brown. Another source of controversy is that pressure is considered verboten to most everyone who does this work because it can distort the surface or even change the metal's hardness from getting too hot... but I do it anyways on cast aluminum because I'm able to create a softening effect on all of the raised detail that I think looks amazing. Many people will insist that I am doing this all wrong, and on some materials it IS wrong. But you can get away with it here on the coarse polish. Future stages won't include pressure at all, an not all of the people insisting pressure is evil are correct. Aluminum doesn't heat soak, and it can win you trophies. Pressure can be used to create an effect.
I would have completed the brown and white rouge stages in this video if it didn't make it unwatchably-long and repetitive. People who have seen this part on my workbench in my absence have text messaged me saying I did a fantastic job, that it looks amazing, that they want to do it to one of their own... but I'm not even done with it yet. The brown and white stages will be massively accelerated in a future video and we will also expand our tool selection and techniques for polishing different kinds of things. I won't need to explain them in detail because you learned them all right here. Thank you for watching. This video is essentially the polishing glossary complete with the example of the work.
For anyone ribbing me over how I used a die grinder, know the other one survived that same kind of abuse for decades, and I'm well aware that I'm using it "wrong". I demonstrated this so that you don't have to experience this, or so that you buy the warranty. We needed this example of what's likely to happen to most any electric die grinder with a 4" wheel, and how to recognize the symptoms before it dies. Get the most powerful one you can for doing this. This comparison is nowhere close to being fair. The extremely used, ancient Milwaukee I used was over $350 new and so old that it was made in the USA, where they haven't been made for decades. You'll get what you pay for with electric die grinders, but they're by far the most useful tool for polishing this particular kind of part.
Air tools rarely fail to get the job done, but they take a whole lot of compressor to work efficiently. I find it's best overall if you use both air and electric tools for this kind of part, and you will be able to watch this video and see exactly why. If you do these steps the same way with the same tools, then you can achieve these same results.