# Polishing aluminum (removing the oxidation).



## DorianJ (May 20, 2006)

It's been a while since I cleaned my Trek Y5. Some of the decals have worn off or faded so I decided to remove all of them and the aluminum underneath them is BRIGHT! Pretty much all the aluminum that wasn't covered by decals is dull and oxidized. What can I use to polish this to get the factory finish aluminum shine?


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## DieselAndDust (Aug 28, 2007)

I've used everything from Mothers Polish, Drum Kit Brass Polish to Turtle Wax.

Mothers... is good for rubbing out blemishes and scratches.
Turtle Wax... puts a nice luster to the raw aluminum and protects it with the wax.

Brass Polish is messy, and doesn't really work to well.


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## jupiterrn (Aug 21, 2004)

If you have a boating supply store nearby (West Marine) they have a number of polishes for aluminium.


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## DorianJ (May 20, 2006)

I tried Mother's, but it's like there's a solid "layer" of oxidation so nothing came off. I rubbed pretty aggressively too. Do I need sandpaper perhaps? I was about to try that, but I'm just worried about scratching the aluminum. I tried using an electric rotary car waxer/buffer, but that didn't help. I know there's gotta be a trick for getting rid of this stubborn stuff. :madman:


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## Dirtman (Jan 30, 2004)

Mothers should work Maybe yu should try some scotch brite pads to give it a brushed shine, then use Mother's... Bling!!!!!


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## motolombardo (Mar 10, 2007)

I work on medium sized business jets and we use a paste called flitz on all of our leading edges and engine inlets. it works great but takes a while if you are doing it by hand.
http://www.flitz.com/index.html
I also found it sold under a different name at autozone for about 5 bucks in a shiny (glittery) little plastic container. if I remember I will let you know the exact name. Its a blue paste. fine enough to use on some types of paint but still more of a rubbing compound than a wax. good ****.


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## drunkle (Nov 11, 2005)

i'm trying to polish an old set of rims that are spotted with oxide. the blue stuff, blue magic, i think, works well in general polishing, but even with a scotch brite pad and the polish (combined), the oxidation remains. granted, some of it did come off and more elbow grease may be required, but it's pretty damn hard work... there is definately an improvement tho, just not as clean and easy as i'd like.

edit: btw, aluminum oxide is one of the hardest things known to man... up there with diamonds, they use aluminum oxide in sand paper. so yeah, it's tough stuff.


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## TrekJeff (Oct 12, 2006)

DUDES!!! I found the coolest cleaner for metal this week. Mr. Clean Magic Sponges

I can't believe how well these things work, you just get the sponge thing damp and whipe it on. It blew my mind, copper, steel, aluminum, etc.


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## da_eddio (Sep 23, 2006)

im wondering how to do this too cus ive got a set of rims that have gone dull and miserable. 

would using a dremel type tool with a polishing head and mothers be too aggressive?


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## jonnyc1999 (Aug 4, 2007)

steel wool usually works well for a rough job. It takes a heck of a lot of elbow grease, but works a lot better than a scotchbrite. If you want to get a mirror finish though, use progressively finer sandpapers, all the way down to 600 or 1000, then buff with jewelers rouge. Thats what I do on my motorcycles aluminum parts, and you would swear they are chrome. Just make sure that you protect it afterwards with some wax, or it will oxidize again within days.


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## TrekJeff (Oct 12, 2006)

da_eddio said:


> im wondering how to do this too cus ive got a set of rims that have gone dull and miserable.
> 
> would using a dremel type tool with a polishing head and mothers be too aggressive?


I've used my dremmel for polishing, you just need to be able to aadjust the speed and get it right, I you have the red paste that some dremel kits come with that's good stuff. But if you aren't having to remove heavy stuff, caked on oxidation crust, give those Mr. Clean pads a go...I was shocked. I saw my buddy using them on his power prop on his ski boat, shined the hell out of it and took off the water stains.


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## sis (Jul 11, 2007)

Solvol Autosol. It may be called something else in your neck of the woods. Made in Germany but available online all over
http://www.autosol.de/


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## sis (Jul 11, 2007)

Solvol Autosol. http://www.autosol.de/


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## Quattro (Dec 26, 2003)

*Polishing aluminum*

I had a polished bike that was polished with a grinder, with a polishing wheel on it. I used commercial polishing compound(stick you put on the wheel) It polishes to a brilliant shine. Harbor Freight sells everything.

Now I used to touch up the bike with a metal polish sold in Albertsons grocery store. It is a small plastic white bottle with a black label. It polishes all types of metal. It smells like ammonia. You put it on and rub. Then you let it dry. Remove it with a clean rag. You can see the black residue on the rag. You might try this first.


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## CraigH (Dec 22, 2003)

I was going to suggest the Mother's Mag Polish as that is what I use on my polished SC Bullet frame, but since you've already tried that...


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## Bokchoicowboy (Aug 7, 2007)

I used Simichrome on my alu frame and parts to get a pretty good shine. Granted, they were not too oxidized. I have used SOS pads to scrub out corroded stuff, such as wheels (the ones I was not afraid to possibly scratch up).


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## TacoMan (Apr 18, 2007)

If the frame is clear anodized it can't be polished. If it is brighter under the stickers it is because the stickers prevented the sun from fading the finish. Anodizing shops even put batches of parts out in the sun a few days if they want to alter the final color to match a sample.

If it is not anodized, polish away.


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## Mountain Cycle Shawn (Jan 19, 2004)

It sounds like your bike has a polished finish that just needs to be touched up. Go to a place that sells auto paint supplies and buy a couple sheets of 2000 grit sand paper. Soak the paper in water over night and wet sand the entire frame. Make sure you use gloves. 2000 is fine enough to sand over sticker graphics without hurting them. When you are done the frame will have a dull finish. Then polish it with Mothers polish and that will give it a mirrow finish. They also sell 2500 and 3000 grit, but 2000 works good enough. Scratches may need to be rubbed out with something more coarse.

Here is a sample:


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## Mountain Cycle Shawn (Jan 19, 2004)

TacoMan said:


> If the frame is clear anodized it can't be polished. If it is brighter under the stickers it is because the stickers prevented the sun from fading the finish. Anodizing shops even put batches of parts out in the sun a few days if they want to alter the final color to match a sample.
> 
> If it is not anodized, polish away.


Anodizing can be stripped away pretty easily.


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## indyfab25 (Feb 10, 2004)

Nice job. My polished 4x needs just that kind of work


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## Jkuo (Feb 7, 2007)

Back in the day, I owned a business where our main product was made from polished aluminum. We had to do a lot of polishing as sometimes our raw materials had some oxidation on them, or water stains. The best polish I ever found was something called Southern Shine. I found out about it through Steeda (the Ford aftermarket parts company) as they have a lot of polished products too. We ordered it direct from the manufacturer, but I think they still carry it.

It's different from Mothers in that you have to shake it up before you use it as there are some types of solvents in there. But it worked way better than Mother's or any other polish we ever tried. Stains and oxidation that Mothers wouldn't take off even with a polishing wheel would come off with this. The 2000 grit sandpaper isn't a bad idea, we had to do that sometimes. But it's an extra step as you'd have to repolish your frame after sanding it down.



DorianJ said:


> I tried Mother's, but it's like there's a solid "layer" of oxidation so nothing came off. I rubbed pretty aggressively too. Do I need sandpaper perhaps? I was about to try that, but I'm just worried about scratching the aluminum. I tried using an electric rotary car waxer/buffer, but that didn't help. I know there's gotta be a trick for getting rid of this stubborn stuff. :madman:


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