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Anyone ever polished their Aluminum Laptop?

S-Man

S-Man

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 1, 2009
162
1
Houston
A thought crossed my mind as I was reading a thread on here about a scratched macbook pro.
Aluminum will polish like chrome. I've done it many times. It's alot of work, but boy does it shine.

Has anyone polished their MBP or aluminum bodied laptop?
Has anyone seen anything like this?

(This process would obviously void any warranty)
 
It's anodized aluminum. Nothing like normal aluminum.

It will RUIN your laptop.
 
Have you ever viewed anodized aluminum tools? they are quite shiny. This is a cool idea, id never try it on mine.....but im sure its possible. But usually, rough looking aluminum has to be ground or sanded down then buffed with compounds in a step process. Id be very skeptical about doing it on a MBP, but if someone did it and like clear coated it to or something, thatd be really sweet
 
Are you sure? Because as long as it's aluminum, it should polish. There may be some sort of coating on it but if you sand this off with some fine-grit sandpaper, say 320 grit or 400 grit, then polish it with progressively finer polishes, it should work.
Like I said, it would be a tremendous amount of work which would probably require dis-assembly, but I'm fairly sure it could be done...
 
Go for it lol. Id try it on a shot battery from a classic mbp or a pb. Almost anything metal can polish, i bet theres an expert in the automotive field that could do it, its just a matter of doing it the right way. And 400 grit would sand a hole lol. Your trying to polish aluminum, not sand off 8 layers of car paint :rolleyes:
 
S-Man said:
Are you sure? Because as long as it's aluminum, it should polish. There may be some sort of coating on it but if you sand this off with some fine-grit sandpaper, say 320 grit or 400 grit, then polish it with progressively finer polishes, it should work.
Like I said, it would be a tremendous amount of work which would probably require dis-assembly, but I'm fairly sure it could be done...
Click to expand...

No. You WILL ruin it. There's no way to remove the screen part from the screen, and the keyboard is put in place with around 90 screws. The trackpad is also part of the top case, no way to remove it. There's also a reason why there's a coating. Naked aluminum will gradually turn to a matte texture and color, become more and more grey, and will turn black EVERYTHING it touch. It's aluminum equivalent of rust. Your hand wrist will turn black only typing on this thing.
 
mikes70mustang said:
Go for it lol. Id try it on a shot battery from a classic mbp or a pb. Almost anything metal can polish, i bet theres an expert in the automotive field that could do it, its just a matter of doing it the right way. And 400 grit would sand a hole lol. Your trying to polish aluminum, not sand off 8 layers of car paint :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

No son. I'm in the automotive refinishing industry. I was raised in it. I know a thing or two about sandpaper/polishing.
Wet-Sanding with 400 grit sandpaper is not that rough. It cuts fast, but that's what you want to take the coating off at first.
What will sand a hole in aluminum (even thin aluminum) is 36-grit, 80-grit, or 150-grit sandpaper, On an orbital sander, and then you really have to lean into it to do that.

Years ago when I bought a pair of roller-hockey in-line skates, they had an aluminum frame. I removed the wheels, sanded them with an orbital sander and 220 grit sandpaper, then proceeded to wet-sand them with 320-grit sandpaper, and then used wet 800-grit sandpaper, then used rough compound, and then progressively finer compound until it was like chrome.
Lots of work but I got the desired effect.

I was just wondering if there were any chrome MB's floating around out there.

edit: and yes, bare aluminum needs a coating. There are sealers that companies make for wheels and such, but they are usually liquid or cream, which would not be good...YOu would really have to dis-assemble the thing for that.
As far as the LCD lid is concerned, you could just polish the top where the apple is. i wouldn't worry about the frame around the LCD. You could mask it off with plastic or masking paper. Same for the keyboard.
 
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PeterQC said:
No. You WILL ruin it. There's no way to remove the screen part from the screen, and the keyboard is put in place with around 90 screws. The trackpad is also part of the top case, no way to remove it. There's also a reason why there's a coating. Naked aluminum will gradually turn to a matte texture and color, become more and more grey, and will turn black EVERYTHING it touch. Your hand wrist will turn black only typing on this thing.
Click to expand...

I believe the word your looking for is oxidation, and yes, thats why you have to clear coat it, or polish it all the time. This is hypothetical, and yah, id never try and take it all apart to do it. Id like to see some one try it on a wrecked pb or something just to see if its possible.
 
mikes70mustang said:
I believe the word your looking for is oxidation, and yes, thats why you have to clear coat it, or polish it all the time. This is hypothetical, and yah, id never try and take it all apart to do it. Id like to see some one try it on a wrecked pb or something just to see if its possible.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to say.
 
Well dang all u had to say was that you knew a thing or two. I was just thinking that you can sort of see some shine though the matte of on the MBP, i was thinking get some 800 or whatever, or i cant remember a sisal buffing wheel or something, get the rough off of there and get to buffing lol. Im not 100 percent on aluminum stuff, im more knowledgeable of how to make paint smooth like glass than i am of aluminum.
 
Could verrry cool.

On a related note, I knew a lot of guys who polished their aluminum frames of their sportbikes. They all crashed.

Maybe it was caused by the No Fear stickers rather than the high shine.
:D
 
QuantumLo0p said:
Could verrry cool.

On a related note, I knew a lot of guys who polished their aluminum frames of their sportbikes. They all crashed.

Maybe it was caused by the No Fear stickers rather than the high shine.
:D
Click to expand...

Haha yah, they no fear in their pants when they wreck....so much for that
 
I'm much more interested in using my laptop than to worry about polishing it. I don't see the point.
 
THX1139 said:
I'm much more interested in using my laptop than to worry about polishing it. I don't see the point.
Click to expand...

Aww who invited the downer..jk. Some people like their stuff to look good or different. just like people who like having really nice cars or modding their cars to look different or really nice or just to do something different. Then there is people like you, who dont care so much about the form as long as the function is sufficient. I would compare this to people who drive hideous cars but dont care because it gets them from point a to point b. There is nothing wrong with either side, its just some people like a little style in their life. Just look around at how well those super shiny pcs are selling. Boils down to preference.
 
Hey everyone. I was curious as to if you could polish the aluminum macbook. Growing up i spent lots of time polishing aluminum, and after plenty of thinking i decided to go ahead and try it. i started on the inside of the battery cover to make sure it would be feasible. My method worked. Sooo here is my partly finished underside, and my finished top side of my computer. I am very pleased how it turned out.

NOTE: This was a very lengthy process, and a very tedious one at that.







Let me know what you guys think.
 
I'm sorry, but that looks terrible.

It reminds me of putting 22" chrome-golden wheels on a Rolls-Royce Phantom, killing its proper look.
 
S-Man said:
A thought crossed my mind as I was reading a thread on here about a scratched macbook pro.
Aluminum will polish like chrome. I've done it many times. It's alot of work, but boy does it shine.

Has anyone polished their MBP or aluminum bodied laptop?
Has anyone seen anything like this?

(This process would obviously void any warranty)
Click to expand...

/facepalm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks guys. I like it, and i guess thats all that matters. But yes the sides weren't done at the time of the pictures. I got eager because it looked so good, i just had to show someone. And im going to leave the keyboard section of the computer as it is. The finishing polish brings it to a mirror finish though. Im not positive, but i dont believe this will be the last thing i do to my computer.
 
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