Hi people,
I have a 10yr old locost who's body is looking like mine, tired and pitted. the aly panels all need some work. I've considered cling film (vinyl wrap), painting ect. but having looked into both I'm not convinced. so back to the bare ali, has anyone any advice on using autosol ie. does it work on quite heavily pitted panels and how physical is it to do. By the way I like to do the job myself rather than pay.


[Edited on 21/7/17 by xlomaxal]

[Edited on 21/7/17 by xlomaxal]

quote:

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Originally posted by xlomaxal

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Poor Boys

zinowis

or am I holding it upside-down?

Turtle wax

Autoglym

Ear wax


(great first post btw!)

Smooth peanut butter

Not sure what we're trying to get to here, but Auto-Sol works well for me.

Waxing & waning.

Scotchbrite and warm soapy water. Cleans them up nicely.
The next challenge is keeping them that way.
Clear/coloured wrap if you like the look, otherwise wax/paint/???.

I'd be using a machine polisher and some specific polish to try and bring it back up. Have a look at some of the tutuorials on car detailing on YouTube, and decide if you want to give it a go.... Failing that, consider taking it to a professional valeter, who will probably charge £300-400, but will polish it and apply a top coat to seal it an keep it looking prettier for longer!

First, it's a lot of very hard work.
Are you trying to get a clean finish, a satin finish or a shiny reflective polished look?
If it's pitted you'll have to get down below the deepest pit by removing the top layer of aluminium with perhaps wet and dry paper. Then you can start with polish or scotchbrite to remove the rubbing down marks.
A cotton head mop and proper metal polish works but it's laborious. A normal vaulters foam head didn't do it for me.
The short answer is; elbow grease. Or pay someone else to do it. Have fun.

If the alui is pitted, then polishing is a waste of time,
The ONLY way to get a mirror finish is to wet and dry the panels with 600/1200 paper
then polish using T cut (works fine, as ive been using it for years) and then progress to Autoglym metal polish

However if the alui is pitted/ damaged, pull the whole lot of and repanel in brand new metal

If I had my build time again, I would not of gone with a polished alui look, as its a pita to keep looking nice

Hi folks,
thanks for the comments. I think I know my project over the winter.

California customs Original Purple Metal Polish is so much better than any other metal polish I've used , they also do a cleaner to remove corrosion . Not cheap but worth every penny.

"California customs Original Purple Metal Polish is so much better than any other metal polish I've used , they also do a cleaner to remove corrosion . Not cheap but worth every penny."

ive got some, and for the cost, not worth it, atoglym metal polish is 100% better, than the Purple stuff, didn't do much on my alui on the 7 at all

steve