Polished( and protect) KMS advice

[Hawg4Fun]

I am having 591 front end damage fixed and then taken from brushed to polished at Kirkham this week. David and his crew ( a big thanks to all of them !!) are also doing lots of other great upgrades , fixing issues with the her etc ...i expect to fly over and drive back to Denver this weekend !

I know that i have seen threads on this and the best solution for polishing/cleaning/care and feeding of polished Kirkham's but have searched the forum and am unable to find the complete info i know i have seen in the past, like do you wax them to protect? if so then any specifics appreciated
I tried shark hide on some polished rims for my 55 Chevy ( pic attached) and took it off as it left a haze

I do not want to fuss to much over the finish but do want to minimize the effects of all the driving i do in her ( 3-5k miles a year )

Could some one point me in the right direction please....

and any suggestions on "got to drive" roads in that area appreciated too
i intend to take 3-4 days on way home, drive as many back roads as possible like Moab/ river to Grand Junction etc

Many Thanks, Kevin

[Maricopa]

That's the craziest looking Kirkham I've ever seen.

[Bill Wallace]

Kevin, every 3-4 months the polish will tend to take on a very slight tarnish. Perfect Polish sells a range of Nuvite metal polishes that will help you maintain the shine. Nuvite F7 and F9 are used to repair heavily oxidized, scratched or pitted areas. They are best used with separate compounding pads on a variable speed buffer. (I forget which order the two polishes are used but Perfect Polish has that information on their web site). Then, after repairing any oxidized or pitted areas Nuvite S polish is used to acquire the final shine with a polishing pad. Alternatively, you can acquire dual-headed Cyclo oscillating polisher with fleece wraps covering the polishing heads to apply the Nuvite S compound. The Cyclo polisher is a real handful to use, particularly when trying to manage the fleece wrap that they recommend to use. Perfect Polish also sells the Cyclo polisher and fleece wraps.

If the shine becomes tarnished over time (not oxidized or pitted), you can use fleece wraps to apply the Nuvite S compound by hand to bring back the shine. That process is closer to waxing a painted finish by hand with paste wax.

All the polishing needs to take place out of the sun as it dries the compound too quickly.

I would recommend staying away from micro fiber clothes to perform any polishing as they will leave fabric marks on the polish.

I haven't used any protective waxes. I just use the Nuvite S applied by hand with a fleece wrap to restore a tarnished shine and/or to remove slight scratches.

Youtube has several videos on how to polish aluminum, including using the Nuvite compounds, using compounding and buffing pads with a variable speed buffer, and using a Cyclo polisher.

All this sounds intimidating, but it is more tedious and dirty (when using the polishes) than difficult. I ordered my car from Kirkham sanded to a 300 grit level and sanded it an polished it using the foregoing techniques so it definitely can be done and once the initial polish is achieved it isn't too difficult to keep it looking good...it only takes about a morning or afternoon every 3-4 months.

As far as great drives in your area I would recommend going to Telluride from Moab, then down to Durango and up to Ouray over Red Mountain pass, then east to Paonia, north over McClure pass to Aspen, then over Independence Pass and down to Buena Vista, then back to Pine. Take pictures for the rest of us who aren't as fortunate as you are to live in the great state of Colorado.

Good luck Kevin!

[madmaxx]

Look ar my shine seal master kit in the for sale section. You apply and your aluminium is protected

[Hawg4Fun]

David and his Crew worked magic on her from polish to set up to everything! a BIG THANKS to all ...Woweeee, drove home and had a blast hitting 121MPH on the River Road out of Moab

[Dimis]

BEFORE:



AFTER:



Man those "Before" and "After" shots are incredible...

The finish looks pretty sweet...

[Hawg4Fun]

i said it was Magic!!

[Hawg4Fun]

[750hp]

What did the front end damage look like? There's something super cool about seeing wrinkled aluminum restored to the way ol 'Shel intended...

[FatBoy]

Side pipes and roll bar added as well.

I don't put any protective polish on mine and I drive similar sort of miles to you. I give it an all-over polish once a year with Mothers and then just use a vinegar based window cleaner to get bugs and finger prints off.

If you try to maintain a faultless mirror finish all over, and use it, it will drive you insane. They look all the better with a little road patina in my view.



Paul

[Hawg4Fun]

It transferred all the way back to fender and under windshield...Davids a Magician

[Hawg4Fun]

you can see the impact creased the fender

[TimG427]

Wow, I'd love to have that done to mine. How long did it take?

[RodKnock]

I would have had a hard time deciding to convert my Street 427 to an S/C. That's for sure. Either way they're beauties.

I've been WAY too lazy, but I may try to get out there this weekend with the polishing rags and polish up my car. I have both Mothers Billet Polish and the Nuvite S and they're close enough for "horseshoes and hand grenades."

[Hawg4Fun]

First off the trip to the shop is well worth it , if you have never been GO!!!
i am not a mechanic nor builder, just a dumb ass guy with a car that needed a lot of TLC from the damage as well as to fix things that other mechanics had done wrong/bad/poorly to her and I was treated like family! and The work they do with Aluminum is ART .. 591 was worked on by David and his crew for a full 7 day week, the hardest part i am told was fixing the damage/straightening the head lamp bucket area/wrinkles all the way under the windshield too. the brushed to polished and stripes /headers/exhausts/roll bar is a fair amount of time too. i Believe The cost just for brushed to polished was 5k (thats the cost to re polish a car too i think ) plus 1250 main stripe and 350 for rookie stripe,
FYI these stripes are magnificent in and of them selves ( not that the polished ares aren't too ) My car had other issues too ( replace rear diff/upgrade to the new/current CV axels etc and they were able to get all this complete by working on her nite and day ( like Friday til 130 am and then all day Sat til 9 pm) I can not say enough great things about the Kirkham Crew and they way they took car of me...they looked at every single thing on the car and fixed/corrected every single item( they fixed plenty of stuff that i would have never known needed fixing...made parts , improvised and even upgraded items at NC !!) all with out batting or rolling an eye . As far a converting from the Street to SC ( i would have never thought that my ( and all others ) reaction would be so over whelmingly positive , anyway i could not be happier with 591 and the experiences i had in Provo and the thrill of driving a properly set up Kirkham at 120MPH on open road home and its like i have an ALL NEW Kirkham to boot

[rodneym]

Fantastic!
I'm setting my Kirkham 're-job' sights at 10k miles.
Just a few more k to go.