Polishing Bolt Heads. A tip for builders and restorers.

[spacies]

On the Gauntlet cab I am restoring it has the ugly standard coach bolt heads with the raised lettering telling you the sizes.

So I thought I would polishing them out.

Things you need:

A Drill.
A water tray.
Some standard P80 Sandpaper.
Some Wet & Dry P400, P1200 Sandpaper.
Something soft that shapes to the head when you push the bolt into the sandpaper. I used some old bubble-wrap packaging and doubled it up.
And some clear coat (not necessary but recommended).



1st step is to put the bolt into the drill:



Then press it onto the P80 grit and spin it till the raised lettering is sanded off. Then you should have something like this:



Note the harsh scratching.
Next step is to dip it in water ready for the 1st wet and dry:



Then press the head into the P400 and spin it up on a medium speed:



Should be getting a better finish:



Repeat the above step on the P1200 and go for a high speed and slowly release the downward pressure until you lift it off and you should have a nice shiny bolt head:



I like to seal them to prevent rust and oxidization so I dip them in a Lacquer clear coat:



The final results:



Before and after:








Cheers,
Spaceman

[leapinlew]

freakin awesome.

Nice 1!

[opt2not]

**Snap**

That was the sound of my mind being blown.

Awesome tip!

[Xiaou2]

 Actually, if you want them to Pop even more... after you sand as shown above,
you can use a buffing wheel and polishing compound sticks.   I usually use a coarse and fine grit stick.  It will look chrome/mirror perfect when done.

[pinballwizard79]

Awesome!

I bet I know what your favorite TV show was.

[Zebidee]

Man, I love this!  I wouldn't have know where to start until I read this.  I've thrown away so many bolts before, and sometimes they are hard to replace.

[miles2912]

That is a great idea.  Gonna have to restore some bolts here in the next few weeks. 

TAG!

[Bleagh]

Very Nice Job!

Although I will likely never do this as I can't stand having my bolts visible, I will keep it in mind should the need ever arise.  I prefer to countersink them or hide them somehow.

[Franco B]

Good job buddy!

I polish things all the time in a lathe chuck but I never would have thought of holding the carriage bolt in a drill chuck 

[leapinlew]

I polish things all the time in a lathe chuck but I never would have thought of holding the carriage bolt in a drill chuck 

No doubt. Thats the one that impressed me too.

[SirPeale]

Good show, man.  I've done this many time, but never coated the tops.   Always hated that they rusted, but I couldn't stand the raised lettering.

[CheffoJeffo]

Good show, man.  I've done this many time, but never coated the tops.   Always hated that they rusted, but I couldn't stand the raised lettering.

Same here, although I have primed and painted some black with good results.

 

[Necro]

I just found a new way to use my drill press.

[mmb]

I always used my dremel with the polishing pads and rubbing compound. 

This looks much cheaper/easier!

[ChadTower]

I always used my dremel with the polishing pads and rubbing compound. 

I use the dremel with a wire wheel.  Does the job pretty well too but I've never coated the bolt.  Might do that now.

How many of us using the wire wheel have had to pull little wire fragments out of our skin?  Just curious... last time I dremeled some bolts I found a bunch of tiny wire fragments shot into my damn face.  Thank god I was wearing goggles.

[Level42]

Very Nice Job!

Although I will likely never do this as I can't stand having my bolts visible, I will keep it in mind should the need ever arise.  I prefer to countersink them or hide them somehow.

Original cabs usually have the bolts visible. Awesome tip ! I have a pair of new bolts from Bob Roberts for my Centipede trackball and they have this irritating letters too. Really want to get rid of them because esp. with trackballs you don't want to feel these....

[SirPeale]

How many of us using the wire wheel have had to pull little wire fragments out of our skin?  Just curious... last time I dremeled some bolts I found a bunch of tiny wire fragments shot into my damn face.  Thank god I was wearing goggles.

Not out of my skin, but I'll be picking them out of my clothes for hours afterwards.

[TheShanMan]

How many of us using the wire wheel have had to pull little wire fragments out of our skin?  Just curious... last time I dremeled some bolts I found a bunch of tiny wire fragments shot into my damn face.  Thank god I was wearing goggles.

Sometimes with sheet metal work I end up with metal slivers. Hate that. But what I really hate with metal work is how you end up with dark gray snot!

[lanman31337]

A little bit of automotive clear coat works really well on the tops.

[Franco B]

Sometimes with sheet metal work I end up with metal slivers. Hate that. But what I really hate with metal work is how you end up with dark gray snot!

Chatter 'swarf' is the worst for creating metal slivers, they are crazy sharp.

Know what you mean about the grey snot, epecially when machining cast iron! 

[SirPeale]

Tell us more about the clear coat you used.

When you dip, isn't it thick?

[spacies]

Hey thanks guys. Your bolt heads will never be the same.
It takes arround 1 minute to do 1 bolt from start to finish.

Peale: The clear Coat is a Lacquer. Also called Nitro Cellulose, Acrylic Lacquer etc.
Its the old paint systme use on cars before the 2 pack system they use now.

It does go on pretty thick, but a quick couple of flicks and the excess is gone. It dries in seconds so is great for this purpose.

Lets see some pics guys.

[SirPeale]

Good show, man.  I've done this many time, but never coated the tops.   Always hated that they rusted, but I couldn't stand the raised lettering.

Same here, although I have primed and painted some black with good results.

 

I finally found out the other day how they get the bolts black like that: gun bluing.  Two coats of that and your bolts will be black as...black.

[DaOld Man]

Awesome topic!!