Cleaning valve covers
 

I'm cleaning up my engine on my 77 Corvette and one thing I want to do is polish the valve covers. These are alluminum covers and are not very shiny. They are quite dull and spotted and I'd like to bring them back up to their original look. Any suggestions?

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Mothers aluminum polish as a short answer.

If you want to really make them come out nice, this site has some good instructions: http://darkside351.tripod.com/mustang50world/id19.html

Even if you dont go through that step by step, it should give you a good idea of what to do.

a small die grinder with a polishing attachment is your friend when it comes to between those ribs

I'd use some fine grit (2000) sandpaper first, and then use a cotton wheel with some buffing compound.

For polishing stuff like that i usually use mothers with a right angle buffer wheel (looks like a big die grinder but has a big cloth buffing wheel on it) Takes no time at all to get them nice and shiny :)

CheeseButtons is right on with the fine grit paper and buffing compound...
here are some tips taken from www.streetrodstuff.com

Buff large aluminum parts, such as a beer keg like mine, without having to use a fixed buffing machine. Take your 7-inch sander/grinder/polisher and replace the pad and rubber backing disc with a large cotton buffing pad. Be sure to use large fender washers on each side of the pad for stability. Start sanding the aluminum with about 600 wet/dry using soapy water. Continue with 1000 grit until everything is smooth. Then hit it with the buffing pad and Red then White compounds. It takes awhile so don't get discouraged. Once satisfied, switch back to the felt polishing pad and use 3M polishing compound (or similair) and buff as you would paint. Works great and saved me $160. That's StreetRodding Stuff.

you could probably use a bench mounted buffer instead of a hand held one, it will probably give you more control sonce valve covers arent that huge.