Restoring Colex covers

[Pat]

Over the years, my beautiful Colex fluid and COP covers have taken their share of wear and tear and even abuse (mea culpa).

I thought of restoring that famous finish so I read a little (very little) on this process via Internet web pages and videos. Wealth of info there.

First I determined the material the covers are made of - brushed aluminum.

Then I had to find the right polishing compound. Seems like the compounds are color coded; red, brown, grey, green and so on. Each color compound is for a specific material(s). In this case brown is for aluminum, brass, copper.

Next is to find the proper polishing wheel for your bench grinder or drill.
Again there are choices to be made, depending on the work to be done.
Sisal, spiral, loose and more.

So, for my application I choose brown compound and a loose material polishing wheel.

Then one has to apply the compound, it comes in a tube, very sparingly to the wheel and begin to polish, very lightly, the piece of work.

Don't apply the compound to the work, it is an abrasive and will screw up your day, ask me how I know. LOL

So far so good, at least the caps look better and I didn't make matters worse.

As time goes by I'll try other wheels and see if the scratches will come out.

The COP covers are next, I'll try and get some before and after pics.

Regards.

[Cobra25]

Why don't you just give Daniel a call to see how much he would charge to do it.

[Pat]

The process isn't hard and only cost me $8.75 for the compound and polishing wheel.
It's something I wanted to do myself.

Regards,

[Blackened300a]

For my coil covers and my fluid caps, I been using a aluminum polish by hand. I use it on my upper intake lid as well. Just very lightly rub it in and then wipe off. They look like chrome again. Mothers aluminum polish works great too.

[Bigdogjim]

Thanks Pat good to know that there is a DIY fix:up:

[fastblackmerc]

Pat, after you get the covers polished how will you be protecting them?


I'd use this: http://www.zoops.com/zoopseal.asp