I thought it would be a good idea to sand the ali bonnet so that the patches will blend in nicely and hide the scratches, some bad ones left after removing lumps and crappy vent.

... but it is taking so long

The lines are drawn so that the marks left by the flap wheel all line up nicley - must have took about 10 hours to do the whole bonnet!!!! not to mention the wear on my B&D drill

.... and now having to sand those down with 600 to get a nicer finish


... and guessing that this may need finer wet'n'dry as it seems the surface is very good a picking up dirt (not sure if a coat of clear lacquer will solve that or car wax?).

.... so may end up having to polish it .... in which case I am back at square 1 where I could have just polished out the worst scratches, bugger.

wish I hadn't bothered with all of this; so be warned and learn from my mistake.


bonnet being sanded

You're not a closet masochist are you???

I admire your dedication cetainly but if you're looking at another 10 hours work polishing I would recommend (even at this stage) a new bonnet. As you've already got a template it wouldn't take long to make.

Mine was about an afternoon's work to make. Bent it round a 4' waste pipe and cut all the slots etc. with a grinder and 1mm blade.

As for using a drill to flap the bonnet... get a grinder!



HTH,
James

quote:

---

Originally posted by James

I would recommend (even at this stage) a new bonnet. As you've already got a template it wouldn't take long to make.

---

You must have the patience of an angel...

Feel free to come polish our exhaust anytime you get fed up

Steve

Get a cheap sheet sander from Argos, and plenty of 600 / 800 1200 wet 'n dry. Then sand away. Use a Hosepipe on a trickle.
Oh... DONT FORGET The RCB breaker on the mains feed to the drill... ie water and 240V are not a good mix.

Or even a bucket and a bit of windscreen pipe and set it up syphoning, you only need a small flow of water to flush out the crud.

I did a lot of my stainless like this.

Then you can polish with a stitched mop (dont get the Sisal one) and then a polishing mop. Get that lot from www.shesto.com (or was it .co.uk).

In fact when you get to the 1200 grit, you can almost use Ally polish from there.

good luck... I started with a drill and moved on to a flat sander, its a lot better.

if its alloy i wound“t bother...

also i cant get the reason for the lines??

anyway,

i would bend you mold back,

draw it up in cad and order a stainless steel lasered sheet already polished!!

then its only bending left!

for 30pounds are you done then...

(taking Stainless 1,2mm)

that would be (at the moment) 3pounds per hour!

Regards,

Tks

What finish are you trying to achieve? i cant help thinking it would have been easier to block it down by hand with wet and dry then polish up with paste etc and a machine.

A couple of my trims were a bit manky looking but came up great with Maguirres all metal polysh by hand. Can you not hire a polishing machine (like a big angle grinder but slower)??

If it was me I would look at buying a 5" radom Orbit sander, not exspensive, you can get a reasonable one for £40.00. They are simply miles ahead of a drill type sander and will give a far better finish, I would expect to sand that sort of area in about 30mins and you can finish by hand with wet and dry.

It must be Random orbit though, don't go for anything else as it will leave orbit marks.