Hey guys, I took one of my I/C pipes out to cut it, and while evening it out on the wheel, I was accidentally rubbing it against the metal table. Now the top side is somewhat scratched, and I'm thinking of how I should go about re-polishing it. Should I use a wire brush, which makes it extremely dull, and then polish it? Any help would be great, thanks! ~A-Rod

 

use some fine sandpaper like 400-800 grit and then maybe some scotchbrite, then polish it, i would not use a wire brush, if in a drill it could pit the alum. but, to get the best polish buy a high quality polish, if you have a high speed wheel red jewelers rouge works well, i used that to polish my motorcycle frame and it came out mirror clear, (nice run-on i have there huh)

 

http://www.rx7.org/Robinette/polish.htm

 

well, I can't see what the pipe looks like now, so can't say how well the polish job is but don't use 400 grit It will leave grit marks in the pipe, even 800 I wouldn't, but it really depends on the polishing job. if you are going to redo the whole pipe then just start out with 1000 and work your way up to 2000 going in one direction with water then finish with polish... it takes some time or you can send it to me for a small fee

 

It isn't really bad at all, it's just about a 3-4 inch series of lines (perpendicular) in the tube, but I'm terrified to use sandpaper, I tried using an ultra-fine grit before on something metal I had, and it ended up looking like ****. I might just send it to you when I have you convert my taillights, it's not a huge issue atm...

 

Depending on how deep the scratch is, 1000 and up grit is not going to do much. He needs to use a lower grit sandpaper to get the scratch out and then work his way up in grits, changing directions with newer grit paper.

 

yeah going to something like 1000 or 2000 grit is a good idea cause they will take out the marks made by the 800 but it all depends on the depth of the scratch as to which grit to start with, not what kind of finish you get, that is determined by what grit you use in the end not the begining. good luck polishing isnt something you get good at all at once, it takes some practice.