Keith: You now are in the beginning stages of 'Buff Disease'. Symptoms include taking apart every aluminum part on your bike, black lint all over your garage and everything in it, and black snot unless you wear some sort of mask, in which case you'll look like a monkey when you take it off. For further reading on materials and techniques, go to http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htm I have nothing to do with these guys, but there's lots of good free buffing info. Best tip is the color motion. Enjoy
Was at Home Depot today and snooped around in the tool section. There
it was, the good ole Ryobi 6 inch bench grinder for a mere $39.97. Bought it since I have been wanting one for a long time now, then bought some 6 inch buffing pads and 2 types of aluminum cleaner (brown bar and a white bar). Holy s#$t!! What a difference 3600 RPM's makes! The valve covers, intake manifolds, and belt cover are shining like they never have before! I was grinning ear to ear working on them - just something rewarding doing it yourself and seeing the results. I was all set to take the bits to a cycle shop to have them polish everything up, but no more. I'm now armed and dangerous. Granted it ain't show quality like the ones from Mark or Moe, but for a garage mechanic, nice. Looking forward to polishing up the front wheel hubs, may have to sell those NOS chrome front wheel hubs (both sides) if they come out as nice as the valve covers did, and there still in the box!