yes and no, it depends on what compounds you use. I polish in 2 stages, one compound is for "Cleaning" so it has a light cut to it, and removes some material, and the other is a high polish which brings out more of a shine. The cleaning compound will remove any imperfections that sanding to 600 wont.

 

still wondering if you clear coated them, or if thats even a good idea (idk if that metal will lose its luster after a while like aluminum seems to)

 

I didnt clear coat them, but i am thinking of having them powdercoated clear. Keeping polished parts that shiny is a pain in the a$$

 

That's the LONG road to shiny-ness. 600 grit is fine, and gets the surface down far enough that a rouge bar and a buffing wheel can get the rest.

 

yea, thats why i was wondering. Would clear powedercoatings stand up to the heat better, or would it just be shinier?

 

That turned out very nice!

 

yep looks like a nice winter project. oh wait, Texas doesnt have winters...

 

damn you southerners Jouelouis, i want the powdercoating because its tough. It will seal in the shine and will be very heat/scratch resistant. More pics to come, im working on the alternator now.

 

to make steps easier try aircraft remover, then if you see any imperfections 320 then 600 , then 1200 then 1500-2000.. i bet air craft remover will get just about everything then its just polishing the metal after that..

 

Here's what I did to an extra thermostat housing I had laying around tonight. Took a couple hours, and I didn't use ANY sandpaper. The pics don't do it much justice, but I took them at the best angle I could that would turn out halfway decent.

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...65_56_full.jpg

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...65_57_full.jpg

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...65_58_full.jpg

 

your links didnt work for me, but I polished up my thermostat housing as well when I replaced my waterpump. they clean up very well!

 

...the things i find funny at 3:30am when i cant sleep

 

I re-checked the links after posting, and just now, they are working just fine.

 

Looks great! ...but what will you put on them to keep them looking that way? I would think that they are very suseptible to oxidizing/rusting and you probably wouldn't want to have to take them off each time to keep them uniformily polished.

 

That's just the thing, and the other guy is right, there is no end to polishing you have to keep up on it to keep it that way.