crocus cloth can be had at a really big hardware store usually. it comes in a roll and is red. works good wet, too. it will give a very smooth, slightly dull shine on steel, more of a matte, smooth finish on aluminum. then use a polish and cloth, like you'd use for polished aluminum wheels.

you can polish any aluminum that way. I've polished a shifter **** for my jeep, my entire paintball gun including the aluminum tank, and some little aluminum cribbage pegs I made. I used a cloth polisher with red, then white rouge as the final mechanical polish, then a chemical polish. The chemical polish I used (I think) was a Mequire's paste in a little screw-cap jar. My cloth wheel was on a bench grinder, but you get get 'em for an angle grinder or a drill.

The shine was like mercury, so deep and lustrous it was beautiful to behold. But oh so fleeting. Raw, polished aluminum will start to oxidize and dull immediately. The Mequire's helps this marginally, but it still isn't as shiney only hours after you are done. Polished aluminum is way fragile.

 

ya think it is wise to do that on a pipe, i like the look on the bike of that holy **** in your look face of the mirror image. i may have to go to home depot sooner than i thought i will try it on the back side of the pipe first to make sure i want it.

 

polished aluminum is beautiful! once you do one spot, you'll be working all night on the whole thing. you'll be polishing everything aluminum you can find.

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I just used sandpaper. I started with 220 grit or something rough and sanded the crap out of it. Then I was told by a guy that polished transport truck rims to just keep jumping paper grits by just under half. so i went to 320, then 500, then 800, then 1000, then 1500, then 2000. Just kept sanding till all the previous marks were gone. By the time I was done I could clearly see myself in my magneto cover. Then hit it with a buffing wheel and some autosol or other metal polish and youll have a mirror finish.

All the other methods also sound good, this is just how I did mine.

 

I did my sport bike frame just like LT250Rodney said, but I jumped over some grades and wet sanded with 2000, then used Mothers metal polish and a $20 10" buffer from Wal-Mart. I couldn't be happier. Now I just do touch-ups with a rag and Blue Magic (same stuff I use on my big-rig).