How to polish your rocker cover

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How to polish your rocker cover

Postby sol'd out » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:35 am

Following a couple of requests on how I polished my rocker cover I thought I’d put it into a proper post. I know there are other ways that people have done this but this is the process that I used.

A few points to start:

1. You'll need plenty of patience. I did mine over a period of about 3 months because I just found it incredibly slow and tedious. I could have done it in considerably less but couldn't be bothered. I guess my point is that it takes time.

2. Make sure the rocker cover you start with is in good condition. Painted is ideal as it protects the metal but you'll need to remove it with Nitromors before you start. My cover wasn't painted and was heavily oxidised in places. Experience now shows that you won't be able to polish this out completely.

3. Have the right tools. I know people who have done this by hand but I can't imagine how tedious that would be. I'd recommend the following:

A Dremel or something similar with a flexible shaft (it makes it more manoeuvrable and less tiring to use). I bought a cheapy Clarke one from Argos and it more than did the job.

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They don't seem to do that particular one anymore but they do this one http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... 418774.htm. I promise you it's money well spent!

Grinding wheels. (Mine came with my multi tool)

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A plain shaft which fits the Dremel. I used a small drill bit and fitted it the wrong way round.

A selection of grades of wet and dry sandpaper from about 180 to 800. The cheapest place I found was Screwfix.

Masking tape

A metal polishing kit. I got this from Screwfix too and again it saved a lot of time and effort. It comes with two bars of paste, one for grinding and one for polishing and two large felt polishing wheels which fit a normal electric drill. It really helps if you have a flexible shaft that fits one of these too.

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Small felt polishing wheels which fit the Dremel. These are for the small, hard to reach areas

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Ear defenders

Safety glasses


OK, once you’ve got all your stuff together this is how to polish the cover.

1. Clean the cover thoroughly. If it’s painted, then strip it with Nitromors. You then need to wash it and remove and oil/grease using something like Gunk. You’ll be handling it a lot and grease won’t help with the polishing.

2. Use the grinding wheels to remove any large casting marks. Be careful not to take too much metal off. Remember that any deep abrasions you put into the metal will require a lot of polishing to remove.

3. You can then start with the wet and dry sandpaper. Start with the coarsest grade (180?). Cut it into small squares about 2-3 cm.

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4. Wrap the sandpaper tightly around the bit and secure at the base with masking tape. It’s a bit tricky to start with but you’ll get the hang of it with a little practice.

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5. Set the speed to moderate – too slow and it’ll struggle, too fast and it’ll just grind through the metal. Play around with the adjustment and you’ll know when you’ve got it right. Try it out on a piece of spare metal or a piece of the cover that isn’t readily visible.

6. Hold the wet and dry parallel to the surface and work it over the cover a small section at a time first in one direction and then again at 90 degrees. You need to keep it moving and don’t press too hard. Remember that any deep abrasions you put in will be difficult to polish out with the next grade. You’ll need to change the paper quite often as it will disintegrate.

7. Work with progressively finer grades 240/400/600/800 until the cover is very smooth. At this point you can switch to using the metal polishing kit.

8. Use the cutting paste first. For the larger areas you can use a standard electric drill with the big polishing wheel but you’ll need to switch to the Dremel with the small felt wheels for the more intricate areas. You’ll definitely need the ear defenders and safety glasses for this bit. Be warned – bits of the paste fly off and cover everything and it’s really messy.

9. Once you’ve done the whole thing with the cutting paste it should be completely smooth and ready for final buffing. Switch to the polishing paste and repeat the process.

This is roughly what you should expect whilst working through the stages:

Before:

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Casting marks before grinding:

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After 240 grade

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After 400 grade

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After 600 grade

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After 800 grade

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After cutting paste and before final polish

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The finished article

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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby Paulm » Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:47 am

very good. all i would do differently is carry on using wet and dry upto 1500-2000. i would also probably use the coarser grades (upto 6-800) by hand. dont know if that would take significantly longer or not

check aldi's as they sometimes do offers for these tools. i picked mine up for £17 and a complete box of spare attachments for £7 last year and its been a godsend for so many things
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby CRX-RLY » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:46 pm

I've been toying with the idea of doing this for ages as my bay looks quite frankly yuck, but lack a spare cover to means its a no-go for now. What's the average price for a half decent B16A cover? How you go about smoothing of the cover for the B16, as thats quite textured - just use sandpaper?! I can imagine that bit taking a bloody age.... :?

Oh, and pardon my manners - thanks for going to the effort of the write up - I'll probably be using that sooner or later! :)
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby Gerry » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:51 pm

Thanks for the post.

Ill just need to get a spare cover and tools then i shall be sorted :)
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby sol'd out » Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:51 pm

Sandpaper will take out the texturing but you'll just need to start with a coarse grade. The metal is quite soft and you just need to be patient.
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby Paulm » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:03 pm

Yep. I'm surprised how easy those casting marks came out!

Crx-rly, its the paint that's textured. The metal underneath is a lot smoother
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby rocketman » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:23 pm

8) Blinding, nice work!
Honda have started making business jets...is there anything they can't do?
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby CRX-RLY » Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:41 am

Paulm wrote:Yep. I'm surprised how easy those casting marks came out!

Crx-rly, its the paint that's textured. The metal underneath is a lot smoother



Cheers Paul - that's useful to know. I'm not sure yet whether to repaint mine or polish it. I was wondering though about painting it - I've seen a few write ups as to how people have done this and seen that they have covered the writing then painted...? Wouldn't it be easier to just paint the lot then sand the writing back to the metal?
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby Paulm » Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:26 am

its exactly what i do. paint the whole thing and then with a fresh stanley blade you can scrape off the raised surface on the lettering.

you dont need to use hi-temp paint. my current one has been fine with normal car paint for a couple of years now
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Re: How to polish your rocker cover

Postby sol'd out » Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:22 pm

The other option is to powder coat. I have a black powder coated one for everyday use as well. The polished one only goes on for shows because it's such a pain to keep clean! :oops:
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