Aluminum Polishing Issues

[20mercman]

quote putback:

I’ve done a lot of alum buffing on vintage Airstreams and old alum boats. Never found a shortcut. I generally use a dewalt angle polisher with an Airway cotton cloth edge wheel and bar buffing compound. Busch Enterprises has the materials and good info. I rarely use sandpaper eventually you have to buff deeper than the deepest scratch where as the Tripoli Bar [brown] #63030 compound is a fast aggressive 1st cut, then you can skip to white bar #63020 to polish. On decient grade aluminum you will get a mirror finish. Now if, BIG IF, its possible the black stains were caused by back and forth sanding, resetting the removed material back into the just polished alum.Yea, sounds foolish, read the info at the Busch site. Try wiping it with accitone or even alcohal. Polish one direction if possible. The wheel compound technique will do well on and around the letters but beware of “molecular migration”, [with experiance you can use that problem to fill pits!] agian Busch site. What I think I see in the pic I’d guess less than 2 hrs to finish.

I have a 1975 31′ Airstream……………….if you have some spare time… 😆

[outbdnut2]

Bare, unanodized aluminum has a nearly invisible oxidation coating (the stuff that comes off gray on your hand). If you start to polish aluminum without removing this coating first, you create more work for yourself by smearing it around until sanding/polishing dust absorbs it. There are several chemical removers on the market – many made for cleaning aluminum refrigeration coils. Below is a link to one type. After polishing, a coating of wax or some type of clearcoat will keep the oxidation from forming again – it forms faster than rust on steel, but does not corrode like steel because, unlike iron oxide (rust), aluminum oxide is non-porous so once so much forms, it seals the aluminum underneath.
Dave

http://www.orisonmarketing.com/aluminox.html?+Corrosion&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=IM%20-%20Rust%20%26%20Corrosion&utm_term=Aluminum%20Oxidation%20Remover&utm_content=Aluminum%20Oxidation%20Removal

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