Polished Fuel Caps- how to ???

Im working on polish for the wings.
Keeping the fuel caps on as I buff through.
But the casting of the caps clearly needs more effort
to get a polish look that matches as close as possible to the skin.

What are other's techniques for getting this??
Dremel tool with a small buffing wheel
(that I would never otherwise use)??
(searched forums and didnt find anything)
Thanks.

Fuel cap polishing.

Progressively sand the fuel cap surface with 180 grit through about 1500 grit to remove casting imperfections, then polish out on buffing wheel with coarse to fine to polish compound. Helps to disassemble the fuel cap to. I found that putting sandpaper on flat surface and rubbing cap on it kept surface flat.

Thanks Bill for the reply.
Makes sense. I will try it.

BTW, who did you use for the vinyl decals on your -8?
Who would you recommend? (unless they are painted of course).

Bruce,

Nuvite G6 will work great.

Thats what I used and turned out good.
Where a GLOVE and HOLD on to it.
Ask me how I know that.

See ya,
Boomer

Brucew,
Most is paint, exhaust and guns are decals. Invasion stripes and star and bar are paint.

He's Right...

I agree with what Bill told you and will add that wet/dry sandpaper works well for this. Just be sure and use plenty of water to wash the contaminants away. A spray bottle every once in a while will do the trick.

I think I may have started with a coarser grit than Bill did, and I went up to 2000 grit. The process is the same, and the results are likely the same as well. As I remember, it took about 25 or 30 minutes a cap, start to finish.

Also, add a drop of dish soap to the water - really helps. The 3M surface conditioning disks (basically scotchbright) work very well to remove casting marks on uneven surfaces. I usually sand using 220, 400, 600, 800, and 1000. I then use a spiral sewn cotton wheel and then finish with a loose cotton wheel.

Here is an example of one of many polishing projects. Other than the exhaust and front fender, everything is aluminum that I polished (even the valve covers). The fork lowers were sand-cast.



A slight improvement to say the least: