Thread: How to polish and restore aluminum exhaust. (Magnaflow)

Ill make this a quick guide and for the most part its all pretty easy to do with some spare time on your hands.

Total cost supply cost: $30.00


Materials:
- Any Aluminum, steel or metal parts
- Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish
- Microfiber rags
- Buffer (if you have one, or just use a makeshift one haha like myn)
- 120, 220, 400, 800 grit wet/dry sand paper
- Soapy water/ Rag

Alright so first just make sure you have your supply's as seen below. Its all pretty cheap for the most part.



Next, take whatever muffler,piping, or metal piece you are polishing and wipe down with soapy water and a rag then dry off. In this case im using a friends magnaflows that i bought which look like crap.
Few Pictures:









Now start with a low grit paper to rough it all up. I used 120 then moved up to 220 to 400 then finally to 800. You may go higher for a cleaner finish but im lazy and this part wont really be seen so im fine with 800.



Yay, now that your finished with the boring sanding you may take your Mothers polish or whatever else your using for metal and get to rubbing it in. No need to destroy your arms if you dont have a buffer so just rub it in lightly. Black residue will come off, but this is a good sign its working even on the shinier parts. Simply just rub in then wipe off as if you were buffing anything else.
Make sure you have a microfiber cloth...it helps more then you think to pick up the excess gunk without smearing.



Getting there..... about 3 coats in.



After like 4 coats i was tired of using my arm and i dont have a buffer so hears my alternative which actually worked well haha. (Not required)
Cheap Buffer= DA sander+ Microfiber cloth




Once your happy with how it looks stop and give it one clean wipe down and your set. Here's how myn turned out and this is my first time polishing metal but not to bad. At least it will look decent when i install it soon.




Yellow tint from my yellow painted walls in garage below.
Not Perfect but im happy with the glossy loock now. To rid sanding lines go higher grit and spend more time


BEFORE POLISH AND AFTER POLISH

Not bad at all.Looks good. I use mothers mag to shine my tips every other week lol.

Good stuff. Yeah, if you go all the way up to 2000, maybe a bit overkill, but that's about as smooth as they get. Sander always speeds things up a bit too. I have a buffer but not a sander. :P

They'll look good until a couple of weeks after you put them on. Polishing exhaust is the most futile thing in the world.

Except those are stainless, not aluminum.

Originally Posted by Jbruce308

K yeah i dunno they both look similar when polished and i really cant tell. I just figured they were aluminum since the guy who i got em from always goes the more inexpensive route. But yeah your right.

It's ok, you're better off. Magnaflow mufflers are damn near indestructible.

You can also use Eagle One Wadding Polish. I've got most of mine cleaned up. I gotta sand some spots still or use a scuff pad. I've also read that you can use steel wool.