For those with the japan daiwa ito alphas,do you use burmishing oil to buff yours or regular car polish to keep it looking new?

Alphas Itös have never shined even brand new and out of the box, the surface is polished aluminum and there will always be a slight coating of aluminum oxide covering the reel reason why it doesn 't shine like a mirror unless you polish it to mirror finish.

Polishing it with car polish is not a good idea, you will only cause scratches and swirls on the surface if not done with the proper tools  to bring it to mirror finish.

Now if I could only remember who posted the pics of a mirror polished Itö.......  :-/

Jimzee  

Here you go dude. Brand new one is on the right, used one on the left. I use aluminum polish with a high speed Dremel tool with a polishing head.

I have to warn you ahead of time, take the reel completely apart down to every last screw. You don't want this stuff getting into your bearings. Plan to take about 4-6 hours out of your schedule for this job.

I suppose if you want to keep it shiny you could have it sprayed in a clear coat after the buffing.  

I like the tarnished look of mine though, I think it adds charachter.

Those reels are begging to be anodized pink.

Jimzee do i pay you by the hour to do mine!Or just sell it and buy one of those purty purple alphas!

It's not that hard to do. Make sure you have your reel schematics and use the proper tools to disassemble the reel. BTW, purple Alphas's aren't bad either, I have a couple of those too.  Well technically, the wife claims one of them. :-/

The Delorean of fishing reels.