If you're using a buffing wheel, you'll have far better results with Tripoli
buffing compuond (the dark brown stuff) rather than red or white rouge. Red
rouge is finely divided iron oxide, and besides the fact that it leaves the
haze which you're tryiing to eliminate in the final buffing, a bit of the
iron gets into the aluminum and starts intergranular corrosion. It can
really ruin a piece (in aircraft it can be disastrous -- it can rot right
through thin skin pieces), or at least hasten the time when you'll have to
repolish. When it's buffed out, you can go to the Mother's (I have good luck
with Happich Simichrome, available at hardware stores as well as restoration
suppliers, and both Flitz and Rolite work OK too)
-Karl
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