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Gents, I spent a good several months figuring out how to polish various billeted aluminum blocks for another project. I'd made several polishing spindles, from various motors, to find the right speeds and the right compounds. Mother's, Scratchout, various turtle wax polishing and scratch removers, MAAS, and truly, my absolute favorite, BLUE MAGIC. Blue Magic seemed to leave the cleanest chrome-like look on both cast and billeted or spun aluminum pieces. For significant cutting removal of material to get rid of deep scratches, I'd use more coarse jeweler's red and white rouge compounds, but always, for final finish, Blue Magic. It also leaves a protective film on your metal to prevent rapid re-oxidation. Try it for yourself. You "Mother's" guys likely won't ever try it, but you might be surprised.
I in getting rapid chrome like finishes, I used a 12" cloth wheel, triple stacked, on a 1.75 HP pool pump motor at 1850RPM. This was a dangerous but incredibly quick polisher, sometimes would rip a piece from from my clamps when I turned too quickly or caught a bad edge. Never got hurt, but the potential is there. Those pool pump motors are torquey as all getout.
Even pitted cast aluminum, like valve covers from Honda, could be chromelike in about 30-60 seconds.
One of the best final buffers that I liked, I don't know where to get again. It was about a 2-3 inch 'ball' of super soft cotton like material, to be used in a powerdrill. That thing really did well, but I can't find them anywhere again. It starts out as a disk shaped, multi layered pad, like a sanding disc, but when you spin it, the stuff starts to fill out and form a sphere. It has a 1/4" shank shaft, about 1 inch longer than the radius of the sphere. If anyone sees these, tell me where.
