Mothers Polish vs Buffing kit

I decided to do some polishing this year while my seat is off for an upgrade and based on some good reviews here I decided to try the Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish along with the Powerball Mini. I was pretty impressed with the results and then I watched a Youtube video (link below) on how to polish aluminum with a buffing kit (thanks newfie09xtx) and that looked very impressive too so I dropped by Princess Auto and found them on sale for $20...how could I turn that down? It worked great but it wasn't fair to evaluate it on the tunnel that I had already polished (twice) with Mothers so I divided the back of my belt cover into three sections and started from scratch. One section was Mothers, the middle was the black polishing compound and the other side was black followed by white. After the first pass I took a picture and then went over all three again with the Mothers Polish. It might be hard to tell by the pictures but the results were as follows:

After the first pass the surface that was buffed with the black followed by the white compound was best, then the black compound alone and the Mothers was the dullest.

After going over all three again with the Mothers Polish there was a very small improvement, more so on the panel that was polished with Mothers the first time.

Likes and dislikes:

Buffing kit
Good
More economical and will last longer
Quicker
Comes with a variety of shapes and sizes of buffers which can be used in a drill or die grinder (high RPMs is better)
Can be used for a wide range of metals
Bad
Kit did not have instructions so I downloaded a chart that tells you the grit range by color
If you use too much compound the residue is hard to get off the metal (use a solvent like Goof Off)
You may want to buy extra pads to use different compounds

Mothers Polish
Good
Can be used by hand to reach places the tool can't
Easier to remove haze after polishing
Bad
Takes longer
Paste is cheap but Powerball tool is expensive and gets chewed up faster than cloth
Takes more passes to get the metal shiny and never quite does as good as the buffing pad

My opinion: There's room for both products in my shop. I think the buffing compound gets you there quicker and with less effort but the Mothers Polish is a good final step. If I could only choose one I would go with the buffing kit because it has more uses and is cheaper.

Final note- I now have one of the best looking belt covers out there, but only on the inside. I'm sure I'll find time to do the top now!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2-X91l_HDY

Perfect. Thats what i wanted to hear, I just ordered the kit from princess auto this week.

Iv'e used that kit, it works great. A friend of mine told me that wheeel speed should be 3000 rpm. I have also used just about every decent polishing compound around...mothers mag and aluminum, flitze, mothers billet...the best stuff I've used as a final polish is Bushes Super Polish.

Where can you buy Bushes Super Polish?

The electric drill that I used with the 4" buffer turns at 2700 rpm. The die grinder with a 1" buffer turns alot quicker (over 20,000 no load rpm) but the smaller diameter of the pad would work out to about the same surface speed. The smaller the pad the more rpm you will need to get the same results.

Great write up YammyRX1, thanks for posting up your info/results!

Great info yammy it looks like the Mothers makes it dull/buffing kit hands down thanks

Irv said:

Great write up YammyRX1, thanks for posting up your info/results!

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X2!

YammyRX1 said:

Where can you buy Bushes Super Polish?

The electric drill that I used with the 4" buffer turns at 2700 rpm. The die grinder with a 1" buffer turns alot quicker (over 20,000 no load rpm) but the smaller diameter of the pad would work out to about the same surface speed. The smaller the pad the more rpm you will need to get the same results.

Click to expand...

Sled Werx is the only place I've seen it...I've been using the same bottle for 4 seasons now...looks like Pepto Bismal...goes on easy, cuts very well and comes off easy.

shaddow44 said:

YammyRX1 said:

Where can you buy Bushes Super Polish?

The electric drill that I used with the 4" buffer turns at 2700 rpm. The die grinder with a 1" buffer turns alot quicker (over 20,000 no load rpm) but the smaller diameter of the pad would work out to about the same surface speed. The smaller the pad the more rpm you will need to get the same results.

Click to expand...

Sled Werx is the only place I've seen it...I've been using the same bottle for 4 seasons now...looks like Pepto Bismal...goes on easy, cuts very well and comes off easy.

Click to expand...

Shaddow
I just got mine delivered in the mail.I ordered it through http://www.eshine.ca
16 oz Busch Aluminum polish $16

16 oz 303 Aerospace protectent $13

shipping$8

+Tax Total $40 delivered
I have tried the aluminum polish and it is a lot better, easier ,quicker cheaper then Mothers.
I ordered it on wednesday 31 and it came today

$16 is a great price...I'll order it from there the next time I need it...I paid $20 plus shipping.

Just polished the exhaust cones and it was a little harder than the tunnel because you have to sand out the lathe marks and scratches first but I think it was worth the effort. Also found out what some of the weird bits that I've never used in my Dremel kit are for.

heat exchange said:

shaddow44 said:

YammyRX1 said:

Where can you buy Bushes Super Polish?

The electric drill that I used with the 4" buffer turns at 2700 rpm. The die grinder with a 1" buffer turns alot quicker (over 20,000 no load rpm) but the smaller diameter of the pad would work out to about the same surface speed. The smaller the pad the more rpm you will need to get the same results.

Click to expand...

Sled Werx is the only place I've seen it...I've been using the same bottle for 4 seasons now...looks like Pepto Bismal...goes on easy, cuts very well and comes off easy.

Click to expand...

Shaddow
I just got mine delivered in the mail.I ordered it through http://www.eshine.ca
16 oz Busch Aluminum polish $16

16 oz 303 Aerospace protectent $13

shipping$8

+Tax Total $40 delivered
I have tried the aluminum polish and it is a lot better, easier ,quicker cheaper then Mothers.
I ordered it on wednesday 31 and it came today

Click to expand...

E-Shine is a great one stop shop place
I have used them for a few yrs now purchasing my Collinite's 845 plus a few other things and I have never had a problem once, with anything.

I started polishing my tunnel with the polishing kit and became very frusterated with the progress I was making. Last night I went back at it again even though I did NOT want to! about half hour in I started thinking about the fact that to polish the more heat the better! I started using the heat gun (just cheap jobmate from crappy tire) on each section before I started with the polishing wheel for about a minute. What a difference this makes when polishing. I had one side of the tunnel done in about 30 min.

I am not finished yet though because I am less than impressed with the polishing kit. The finish I am left with is still pretty cloudy and is not where I want it yet. I am going to pick up some Mothers Billet shine tonight at Action truck caps for $13.99. Hopefully this gets rid of the clouded look.

Just thought I would give an update on the polishing kit. Would I buy it again? No. However, I will use it next year again first and if Mother Billet works good I will use that for the last step of polishing.

What RPMs and buffer size were you using? That makes a big difference too and probably generates heat that helps with the buffing compound.

YammyRX1 said:

What RPMs and buffer size were you using? That makes a big difference too and probably generates heat that helps with the buffing compound.

Click to expand...

not sure the rpm's but i was using a makita lithium ion cordless drill 18v. i know corded drills work better but i dont have one. I tried all different buffer sizes. It is noticably better but i want a more mirror like shine, without wet sanding