Bert, When I did my bus, everything was out in the open, so I ended up using a buffing wheel and polishing compound.....can't remember, but I think just plain polish.
The "polish" was red, and you shoved it into a buffing wheel and then started in on the frames....it worked fairly well, but definitely took more than just elbow grease. The results were very nice(just like new). Not sure if it was actual aluminum polis or "rouge" or what...but it worked well. look up buffing compound at harbor freight...the "brown" stuff they call it now. What I do remember however was that it was winter time and after X amount of polish I started getting shocked by static electricity from it a lot....even through leather gloves. I finally ended up making a ground wire clipped to the metal parts over to a good ground. It even took off the embeded rust around the rivets(rivets out of course). Cheers, dave ------------------ "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today."-James Dean On Sun, 6 May 2012, Bert Knupp wrote: > Volks, > > The trim around the vent wings and the front window channels on my 1970 > beetle is looking pretty hazy. It's original, and I'm fairly sure it hasn't > already been overpolished and lost its surfacing. But a couple of days with > both Flitz and Happich Simichrome have led to almost no improvement. A > couple of spots appear to have been lacquered at some point, but I'm not > sure. I'm hesitating to escalate the violence (i. e., the abrasiveness) for > fear of permanently losing the anodized finish. > > Is the answer to restoring factory shine to old anodized aluminum just > patience and a lot more elbow grease, or is there a quick trick I'm missing? > > In the same realm, the chromed upper pivot points for the vent windows have > acquired some rusting, right next to and under the rivets. Any good ideas > how to restore a healthy glow? Do I need to drill out the rivets first? > (Yes, I've replaced rivets in the past. It's a pain, but . .) > > Bert Knupp > Music City USA > '70 Copbug > _______________________________________________ > vintagvw site list > [email protected] > http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw > _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
