Cleaning Aluminum

[cobrajet99]

Hi Everybody!, I Have A Quick Question For You. I Have A Harley, That Has Been Sitting For A Little More Than A Few Years In My Walk In Basement, And The Aluminum Is Looking Pretty Shabby. What Do You Reccomend A Good Way To Clean It Up? I Have Tried Some Aluminum Cleaner ( Cheap Walmart Stuff) And It Didnt Even Try To Clean It. Can I Use Some Emory Cloth, Or 1500 Wet Or Dry THen Polish To Get The "staining" out of the Aluminum?

Im Lost, And Really Dont Know How To Get It Clean Again, Any Idea's are Greatly Appreciated!! Thanks,,,, Dave

 

[droptop73]

If the aluminum is polished the only real way to restore it is to re-polish it using good old elbow grease. Maybe start with some aluminum wheel cleaner designed for polished surfaces. I like Meguiars products, but I have not used the Adams products Scott handles.

 

[Wolverine]

I use AMWAY metal cleaner.

http://www.amway.com/Shop/Product/Product.aspx/Metal-Cleaner?itemno=E0094

Kind of like a rouge. It works really good on white walls that Wesley's cannot clean up.

 

[MotoArts]

What parts of the bike in particular?

Engine/trans cases, tight spots between the rim and spokes (mag wheels), forget about it... elbow grease. No easy task. It's a bear no matter what you do. Cast surfaces are tough.

On the polished surfaces, a small buffer on a drill or air motor works best, with any standard polishing compounds like DuPont #7, Mothers, etc.

 

[goodnigh]

My mechanic gave me a jar of Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish.

Claims it is the best product on the market. Have not tried it.

mike

 

[Tnfastbk]

http://www.simichrome-polish.com/

 

[marks73]

Happich Simichrome Polish

 

[Tnfastbk]

Happich Simichrome Polish

Is there an echo in here here here here?

 

[marks73]

Happich Simichrome Polish

Is there an echo in here here here here?

No, I had to walk out to the garage to check the spelling vs my memory.

 

[Valhallo]

My aluminum was lookin real bad, so I sanded with 320,400,650 and 1000 grit sandpaper, then buff with Emery compound. Polish and whala. Wala?

 

[RacerX]

whala. Wala?

how about voilà!

 

[73QCodeGrande]

My mechanic gave me a jar of Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish.

Claims it is the best product on the market. Have not tried it.

mike

I'm a firm believer in Mothers products! Their Mag and Aluminum polish is great stuff! I even used it to clean up my intake. You can use it in conjunction with some #0000 steel wool for the more stubborn areas.

 

[rpmcarter]

I use AMWAY metal cleaner.

http://www.amway.com/Shop/Product/Product.aspx/Metal-Cleaner?itemno=E0094

Kind of like a rouge. It works really good on white walls that Wesley's cannot clean up.

OMG you will be condemned to HELL for recommending AMWAY... they provide VERY good productS!!!!

 

[Valhallo]

whala. Wala?

how about voilà!

Facepalm.

Lol, thank you. But now that you have spelled it out for me I remember that this is one of those French words that managed to conniver with the English language. Now I wish to withdraw my previous exclamation of voila and replace it with baddabing, baddabang.

By the way, did you notice my use of a big word like conniver? I hope that makes up for my original confusion, cuz it required 3 thesaurus, 2 dictionaries and a sandwich.

 

[pegasus]

Depending on how bad the surface finish is you may need to rub it down with 1200 wet&dry paper, use it wet, then this stuff is pretty awsome to renew/restore polished finish, purple it's great stuff....

http://www.californiacustom.com/purple_metal_polish.html

But if the ally is too far gone you will need to buff it back to life...using power tools...