RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Mother's polish will only restore a polished finish. You will need to use wheels, with a boat load of time!

OK I'm a scared little. ......... so gonna use my swiss cheese black tub as the test mule.

myfordcnc wrote:I have been gathering materials to attempt nickle plating on some aluminum parts. In the next few weeks I be giving it a go. There is a place you can send it to to have it done. But I like to try things out for myself before I realize the value of having a specialist do it.

I have to say, I remember seeing a few full scale car parts done in Nickel and I really liked it. I plan on doing my roll bar in Nickel if I ever get to finishing my car

I like the understated look of nickle plate. There is this other sort of plate/alloy (don't know which) called German silver. Used on a lot of drafting tools.

Mothers polish has wax in it which creates a protective barrier but it will eventually fade and tarnish. A good wipe and buff with liquid wax will keep it from tarnishing, but it too will only last so long.

Heatbath has a guide for cleaning up aluminum for nickel plating, available here.

It's more for their commercial products, but it helps to give an idea.

Could probably do the plating quite easily once the chemicals are obtained.

Well get to work on getting a cnc and I'll get to work on polishing so I can have a new platform for shiny abc bling bling. Welcome back Walt.

I havent been on the forums much lately so I missed this thread.

I've used mothers for a while now. My best test of time was on some rims I had on a truck. they lasted a good 3 months or so before needing to be repolished. This was a daily driver too. redoing the polish was much easier the second time I did it though. for a truck rim, maybe 15-20 mins by hand as it held up really well.

DMAT, I don't know how you did the that polished tub. Man this sucks. Since some have stated about the mothers, I have been using the wheels and the polishing compound found in the bit kits. Just to experiment. Not too bad. Now I didn't sand this down so there are some scratches and stuff and this tub is just going to be an experiment. I think when I actually do a tub, I think I'll just have it reanodized. But in a bright color!!!

I've never actually used the polish compounds that come with dremel kits. Also for polishing with a dremel, some people recommend the felt pads, Nothing in my opinion so far beats dremels 423e polishing wheel. It needs the fast change adapter to use. honestly, any scratched surface is going to be annoying to get a mirror finish. I have turned some brushed finishes into mirror but it takes time. your gonna be s.o.l. on deep scratches but they will polish up too. my nose plate and chassis have some deep scratches but they polish up too.

For sure, this practice tub has some small scratches but nothing major. Really wish whoever cut it up really damaged a sweet tub. I wonder if the powerball attachments for rims would be a little speedier than a dremel?

If you are feeling intimidated by achieving a mirror finnish, just do what I do. Lower your standards!
Seriously, raw aluminum is nice looking in my opinion, and a brushed finnish can be just as nice. As an example, I have some alu rims that were red and beat up, so instead of sanding for all of eternity, I just used a green scrubbie to remove the oven cleaner residue, and went directly to mothers. A rougher finnish helps to hide the damage I couldn't remove. I know how this sounds, but I was happy with the results. The other consideration would be for your shocks, the collars will scuff a mirror finnish.

The key is you have to sand the scratches off and get the smoothest finish possible before even putting a drop of polish on the aluminum.