Polishing a Mag

[brodude2002]

Hello, i would like to know if it is possible to get a regular colored mag (that tansih type of color), get some sandpaper or somehting like that, and polish the finish off. If i did this, my mag would then be nice and shiny! Possible or not? And if this is not the way, is there any other way, cuz i have no $$ and shiny mags look soo cool! Any help will be greatly apreciated.

thnx-
brodude2002

[FrAuStY]

Very possible...but very time consuming. You must first start with like a 320 grit paper to remove the finish thats on there. Once it looks like bare metal all over. Then go to a finer grit like 600, repeating the whole process until it looks shinier.. then go to like 800 or 1000. Then go to 1200 or 1400. By this time it should look polished but still have some hairline scratches. That can be polished out with mothers or some other polishing compound (Wenol is a good one too) Anyway good luck and expect to spend about 4-6 hours to get it looking nice.

[FactsOfLife]

yes, you can hand polish a mag body. it is going to take you some serious time and effort.

AGD bead blasts their grey mag bodies and then colors them. The pitting is tough to remove by hand. I have to use an emory grit on a wheel to do it. Even that takes some effort. Stainless by it's very nature is very hard. And heating it up by polishing it can make it even harder.

The best way to polish it is to beg borrow or steal some time on a buffer. With the correct rouges. Your average brown tripoli is barely adequate for the primary polish. You need some specialized, and costly compounds to do it properly.

The best compounds I've found so far and used in the order needed are these:

Stainless Coarse. About 400 grit.
Stainless Fine. About 800 grit.
Chromium Oxide. Big time shine here.
Calcined Aluminum Oxide. Final polish.

the last two compounds are fairly pricey. but they are the best for making stainless shiney enough to blind people...

[Schnitzel]

i remember on the 'mag video that Tom said the PF welds weren't your average SS welds, and so can you polish those too?

[FactsOfLife]

the welds are probably silver soldered. it's very difficult to get up underneath the PF to polish that weld.

having said that, a very loose cotton buff can get in there and polish the weld enough to make it look very nice. The weld itself is very narrow so there isn't a lot of it that needs polishing.

I'm currently doing a minimag PF that's looking very nice so far under there. I'll have pics of it in progess on my polishing website later this evening.