When I did mine. After I stripped off the wrinkle black paint I first polished them with Autosol used with a white Scotchbright pad. Then finished with just Autosol and a micro fiber towel. Turned out great.

 

Nice, I will try that method next, I have a few more covers I'd like to do (mine and friends dyna). I'd really like to remove the rockers and get rid of the shiny sealant to polish the aluminum, but that's not happening any time soon. I just rode to the store a few minutes ago to keep the battery charged and juices flowing as I have a ride tomorrow (as long as weather holds) so it's never off the road. I never winterize her as I ride every day so I'm probably gonna buy new (used) rockers, clean em and swap at some point. No way I can do the current ones without long downtime and that's not happening.

I'll try your method next as the grey covering sucked to get off..

 

I know it's been a minute since I've replied but I just haven't had time to replace my primary until last weekend. I ride every day so I didn't rush it. Last weekend my primary chain started slapping from a failing OEM chain tensioner (shoe wore away) so I spent a few hours and did it. The hardest part was cutting out the mid shift shaft, I didn't want to remove the inner primary and clutch so I used the hacksaw blade method found on the forums. It took like 3 hours to cut that little booger because you can only go up and down so slowly to prevent touching the frame or primary but it's all done and I love the outcome. I did a Hayden automatic tensioner and plugged the inner primary shift shaft hole and installed my polished aluminum wide glide primary cover. I still have to swap my points cover to match (I didn't have enough time) but it looks so much better with the wide glide primary cover in polished aluminum!

Here's a few pics, before, during, and after (the circles are because I showed my riding group how to do the work) and I'm too lazy to retake the pics, so I reused them. I'll get pics of the points cover when I get it replaced to match the primary. I haven't had time to do the points cover swap yet but that's happening this weekend. I'm also converting my EFI to S&S shorty and thunder heart standalone ignition. My EFI has been giving me trouble with aging sensors and wiring harness fraying and caused a 2 hour issue on the side of the road last month. I got it figured out but I lost the entire day ride so I'm done with EFI and already bought everything. That's my next project (hopefully this weekend). Also around the same time my EFI started going downhill with everything just aging, my Power Vision 4 died out of the blue for no apparent reason so I can't tune it anymore, it was kismet because I had already ordered the new SS shorty carb and ignition...

I need to re-polish the aluminum because it sat for months since I did the work so it's not mirror shiny right now but that's the least of my concerns at the moment. Getting my fuel system back in shape is the biggest priority with my EFI going downhill. My carb conversion will bring her back to life so I'll follow-up again when that's done, and my points cover is swapped for the polished aluminum and I have time to buff up the aluminum.


Before shot

Primary chain tensioner replacement and mid shift shaft blocked off

Finished project with wide glide primary cover and no more mid shift shaft showing

Aluminum wide glide primary cover (I and reusing pics I took to show my group the work and how to do it) so ignore the circles. I tried to use it as a teaching experience for the Harley owners in my riding group