Seems going at aluminium with a bit of sand paper doesn't look too good!

Whats the best way for that pro look? sorry if this has been covered before.

Ta

>Brushed<
^^ First thing I found and it looks ok to me, worth a go?

Scotchbrite or the back of one of them sponge scourers?

Sanding gets it started, then scotchbrite. If you go only in one direction, and never across, it turns out pretty well. You can polish it afterwards. The important part is to remove scratches with the sandpaper first.

Very smooth wet & dry.

sanding pad/sponge & spray the pad with wd40 1st, we use this way at work a lot on aluminium parts, they caome up lovely, works really well on brushed stainless too.

Cheers... I'll give it another try tomorrow..

Old dry brillo pad - Brings it up beautifully...

Scotchbrite style pad under one of those rectangular orbital sanders works well to tidy up scratched panels.

Used in the electronics industry on switch panels and meter front panels etc, gives a kind of scratched all over look

which looks better than I've made it sound!

As above really, however, cleaning and protecting is different thing.

Some of the common TFRs (Snow foams, shampoo's etc) can actually leave stains behind (caustic, salt, wax etc) which will mean you will have to do it all over again.

The best thing I have used for brushed alloy is Rolls Royce cleaner and protectant.

I have used this on Rolls Royce with the brushed bonnets, it isnt the cheapest of products but does work. (The bonnet costs around £3,600 plus vat so I was a bit careful)

I used wet/dry sandpaper over the weekend on my bonnet and its came up quite well and removes any scracthes / blemishes well. Use a sand block which gives it a better finish and ensure you go the same way as advised in above post

didnt think far enough ahead on cleaning

Powder Coating for the protection.

I haven't actually tried on brushed aluminium but I have with polished ali. For my cooling system I bought some 25-30mm diameter aluminium tube (had to buy 5m and only used about 1m) and I beaded it using a oyster tool and them polished it up to a mirror like finish. I then used my electrostatic magic powder coating kit and covered it in clear. That was probably 6-8 months ago and it still looks good.

I suspect brushed will work even better than polished. It would give better adhesion.

[Edited on 29/11/11 by Irony]