Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
It's anodized aluminum. Nothing like normal aluminum.

It will RUIN your laptop.

The anodizing is just a coating, what's underneath is the same as normal alumnium.

There was actually a guy on Bit-Tech (I think) who sanded it off and polished his Mac Pro to a chrome-like finish.
 
no....hell no....put a sticker on the scratch, or vinyl or whatever, just do not try to polish it out, or buffer it...
 
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...

Just don't do anything, because you have no idea about what you talking about. At least you have no idea what how "fine", or actually how rough, 320/ 400 grit sandpaper is
 
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.

[url=http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2493/img0229copy.jpg]Image[/URL]


[url=http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4052/photo0335f.jpg]Image[/URL]


Let me know what you guys think.

That looks damn good! But before you know it...
shine-carekit-1before.jpg

So although it looks sexy as hell, I wouldn't really wanna try it :)
 
What was your technique for polishing your macbook aluminum? I just recently finished mine and it isn't quite as nice as yours. Granted it does look nice but I want the finish to be smoother.
 
Looks like retro appliance.

Just like cars' wheels, if you don't apply some kind of protective coating, the bare metal will need regular polish to look good (high maintenance).
 
That looks cool as hell.. lol.. i would be skeptical on doing it myself though, as it will be hard to maintain, but i'll definitely give it a go on my current mac when i'm gonna upgrade. If for nothing else just to keep it around the house for bragging rights and starting conversations. :p
 
Erm, No, look in the last picture under the CD/DVD drive there is a huge crack there.
This aside it looks cool but without finish aluminium will oxidate fast and you get black hands by even touching it for a short time.

or it could be clear coated. I'm inclined to believe that any one with the skills, and patience that took would also know to protect the finish.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.