You can get an idea of how rough, uneven, and nasty the raw surface of the aluminum was after casting. It had the texture of sand. I was unsure whether I could polish them up properly. I asked a machinist about doing it, but he quoted a price that was astronomical. I soon learned why.

I had little choice but to polish the side panels myself, entirely by hand using emery paper. Each side panel required a full day's intensive work.

I first used three grades of emery paper: course, medium, and fine.

Then, I moved to several grades of steel wool: medium fine, fine, and super fine. I found that I achieved better results by using the steel wool in conjunction with regular cream metal polish.

---