How to shine up aluminum checker plate trailer? | GTAMotorcycle.com

How to shine up aluminum checker plate trailer?

meme

meme

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My husband is killing himself trying to shine up a small trailer. It's a hobby trailer, checker plate with a lot of panels.

Whink works well but not available here in Canada and we have no more in house. Headed south next weekend but that doesn't help him today.

Anyone recommend a product?

Thanks in advance.
 
It really depends on how dull the trailer is currently. If you want to get a really nice look your going to need the right tools. Doing it by hand or with a buffing wheel in a drill is only going to do so much, and not that much at that. You need a tool that is capable of fairly high free speed, but also has enough power that you can put some pressure on it and it will maintain that speed.

If it's really bad you will need to start with some wet sand paper 2000 grit or so and then move up to steel wool. After that an electric die grinder with a set of buffing wheels and some jewelers rouge. Last step is some liquid metal polish to do the finial buffing and to remove the residue from the jewlers rouge.

It is very time consuming but you can get some mirror like results, and then fall into a suicidal depression when it's all oxidized by next week.

To minimize the oxidation put on a coat of wax when your done.
 
Just to add:

I got my electric die grinder and jewlers rouge at Princess Auto. They also have a bunch of buffing wheels.

If you can get your hands on a quality brass wire wheel it will do an excellent job in a sturdy 1/2" drill. It needs to be solid brass though, not the cheaper brass coated steel wire wheels. The full brass is soft and does not scratch up the surface like the brass coated steel wheels. They are getting as hard to find as hen's teeth though. The one I have is probably 30 years old.
 
go find bottle of alumi brite, sold at truck stops and janitorial suppliers and some times building stores, spray it on with a weed sprayer then rinse well. some marine places will have it. DO NOT PARK trailer on lawn to do this.

If you go to a Blue Beacon truck wash they have a chemical spray for aluminum tanks that will make it sparkle, I used to do this.

Coin op car washes have a tire rim cleaner that's not bad.

You can make a super strong mix of TSP ( trisodiumphosphate) available at paint stores and home depot ect. and go at it with a stiff scrub brush for ok ish results.
 
Before you do all that...see if a rag soaked in coca cola makes any difference? Leave it on for a few mins then rinse it off. It's a relatively good solution of phosphoric acid but it depends on what the imperfections on the surface of the trailer are right now.
 
Did a checker plate toolbox with autosol and a buffing wheel on my drill. Did ok, however I did have to finish with a terry towel and some elbow grease
 
An angle grinder with a wire wheel is way better than a drill with wire wheel. It might be a bit too aggressive though. Maybe a nylon abrasive wheel the grinder would be better.
 
U can shine dull alumunum to a mirror finish with sand paper and a buffing wheel (i used mothers because it had an adapter for a drill and an aluminum polishing compound) pics coming.

This took 15 mins because of all the curves and hard to reach areas. However, a flatter surface would be the fastest of course.

Wet sand with
300, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000/2500, 3000
If there are bad rashes then u wet sand with a rougher sandpaper. Then finish off with an aluminum polish compound.

Another alternative is using a buffing wheel with those compound blocks red/bronze/white. This is only great if the surface isnt oxidized or scratched heavily.

Normally id sand to 1,500 then buff it with a wheel.

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Wow. Looks great.

It's a small trailer, but not that small. 4x7ish. That would take a long time to do.

I have some checker plate on my 5x8, so I have a vested interest in how this turns out. So far I will wait and see.

Thanks all, I'm off to the dentist and then to paint a porch. Vacation sucks sometimes.
 
Flitz polish and autosol are both really good polishes , but its a trailer. Does anybody want to spend $150 on enough polish to clean a trailer?
 
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