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You start out with something ugly as this Air Cleaner.
If the metal is thick you can do like I did and hit it with a D.A. sander and some 220 grit sand paper to get the heavy ugly out and basicly clean it up. This cover has 3 screws in it and I just removed 2 at a time as I went along, moving the one screw holding down the cover.
If its thin metal, sorry but hand sanded is the way to go, 220 grit paper to start with. If you use wet paper and keep it wet and clean it goes a little better.
The next step is go up on the sand paper grit, 400 or 500.
After sanding you can clearly see any cuts and grooves and scratches in the surface, this is where the fun starts!
Then comes the hardest thing to do is file the deep grooves out, you must use a flat mill file for this and don't push hard! Pushing hard will just cut grooves into the surface and then you have remove that! Just ever so lightly file the deep cuts and scratches out!!! Pratice on a piece of scrape aluminun first, you'll see what I mean, its not easy to file aluminum!
Then go back to sanding the surface again to blend the filed spots into the sanded surface. Once you have an even surface with the 220, 400, 500 grit sand paper its time to start polishing. (you can use a higher grit paper if you like)
I use a cordless drill and rosin wheels, start polishing with red rosin and a hard rosin wheel, then polish off the red rosin and move to white rosin on a hard wheel. After you have an even surface with the hard wheels and white rosin move to a softer polishing wheel and buff to a high luster shine!
I went outside in the shop and it took me about 1 1/2 hours to get the cover to look like this, my guess is about 5 to 6 hours total to make the air cleaner look show quality.
Here's a few photo's, remember Herdster's, the first time I did this to something I had to go out and but a new set, yes I fugged it up BAD!!! Aluminum Rocker Covers on a Chevy Engine!!! But I was 18 or 19 years young!!!
If the metal is thick you can do like I did and hit it with a D.A. sander and some 220 grit sand paper to get the heavy ugly out and basicly clean it up. This cover has 3 screws in it and I just removed 2 at a time as I went along, moving the one screw holding down the cover.
If its thin metal, sorry but hand sanded is the way to go, 220 grit paper to start with. If you use wet paper and keep it wet and clean it goes a little better.
The next step is go up on the sand paper grit, 400 or 500.
After sanding you can clearly see any cuts and grooves and scratches in the surface, this is where the fun starts!
Then comes the hardest thing to do is file the deep grooves out, you must use a flat mill file for this and don't push hard! Pushing hard will just cut grooves into the surface and then you have remove that! Just ever so lightly file the deep cuts and scratches out!!! Pratice on a piece of scrape aluminun first, you'll see what I mean, its not easy to file aluminum!
Then go back to sanding the surface again to blend the filed spots into the sanded surface. Once you have an even surface with the 220, 400, 500 grit sand paper its time to start polishing. (you can use a higher grit paper if you like)
I use a cordless drill and rosin wheels, start polishing with red rosin and a hard rosin wheel, then polish off the red rosin and move to white rosin on a hard wheel. After you have an even surface with the hard wheels and white rosin move to a softer polishing wheel and buff to a high luster shine!
I went outside in the shop and it took me about 1 1/2 hours to get the cover to look like this, my guess is about 5 to 6 hours total to make the air cleaner look show quality.
Here's a few photo's, remember Herdster's, the first time I did this to something I had to go out and but a new set, yes I fugged it up BAD!!! Aluminum Rocker Covers on a Chevy Engine!!! But I was 18 or 19 years young!!!
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