Alloy polish

King Rat · Mar 31, 2020

What do people use to keep their alloy from going oxidised please?

Autosol is ok for bright polished aluminium, like the wheel rims and rocker covers, but what do you do to keep the engine block and front facing cover clean? How do you keep the bits between the fins clean? And the hubs and the cast bits between the spokes. Struggling to keep the dirt at bay, not muddy puddles dirt either, just sat dirt seems to be accumulating between visits under the cover!

MartinK · Mar 31, 2020

I clean with a paint brush, water and car wax shampoo. If it's really dirty I use Rhino Goo fast action cleaner http://www.rhinogoo.co.uk/products/ first then wash with the paint brush and shampoo.
Post-wash, it's a bit of Scottoiler ACF 365 sprayed on and wiped off.
My 21-year-old K1200RS is still very tidy with this approach.

mikeyboy · Mar 31, 2020

Paraffin and a stainless scrubber,
Old tooth brush in the hard to get to bits.
WD40 works well too

Oldrat · Mar 31, 2020

Belgom

Contains a wax to delay oxidisation

solidstate100 · Mar 31, 2020

I have used alloy wheel cleaner in the past.

King Rat · Mar 31, 2020

Thanks guys, lots to ponder.....

Where do stainless scrubbers come from? Are they for kitchen pans?

mikeyboy · Apr 1, 2020

King Rat said:
Thanks guys, lots to ponder.....

Where do stainless scrubbers come from? Are they for kitchen pans?

Yep,standard supermarket fare.

King Rat · Apr 1, 2020

mikeyboy said:
Yep,standard supermarket fare.

Thanks Mikey. I will see if we have one under the sink and sneak it out! :beerjug:

Paraffin isn't easy to find either. I have got some left over, proper Esso Blue it is, in a Duckhams 'tin', not plastic 1 gallon oil drum. I can still hear the advery for it Bom,bom,bom,bom. Esso Blue! From when it was all I had to cook on and heat the house, other than an open fireplace in the kitchen/diner/lounge in the farm cottage. One of those Aladdin tall paraffin heaters.

Zx9man · Apr 1, 2020

Mothers aluminium polish works well on exhausts as well cheap and goes a long way

Tbolt · May 6, 2020

What if the alloy is already oxidised?

Santa-2512 · May 6, 2020

Tbolt said:
What if the alloy is already oxidised?

Mikeyboy'sAquablaster, a brilliant product, Trouble is you cant get it in the supermarkets,

I think it comes in a gazillion gallon box, there is a place Melton Mowbray who is a stockist.

AberdeenAngus · May 6, 2020

mikeyboy said:
Paraffin and a stainless scrubber,
Old tooth brush in the hard to get to bits.
WD40 works well too

Yup. WD40, wire wool, and elbow grease.

Tbolt · May 6, 2020

I will look up the aqua blaster.

Can the engine stay in the frame?

Regarding wire wool ere Brillo pads ok?

AberdeenAngus · May 6, 2020

Tbolt said:
I will look up the aqua blaster.

Can the engine stay in the frame?

Regarding wire wool ere Brillo pads ok?

Yup...

As with any cleaning product - try an unobtrusive area first.

Tbolt · May 6, 2020

AberdeenAngus said:
Yup...

As with any cleaning product - try an unobtrusive area first.

Thanks

barny · May 6, 2020

Watch if using a brillo type pad if its ferrous, as the particals get ground into the alloy and will leave rusty stains. Using stainless pads etc is no problem.

albatross · May 6, 2020

Or get a Soda blasting gun , bag soda and off you go, oh yes you need a compressor.....

King Rat · May 7, 2020

I used some old fashioned 'metal polish'. That is all it says on the bottle, but it is a white liquid and it smells awefully similar to 'Brasso', but in use it doesn't leave that white film. It has made my peanut covers and wheel rims gleam. Hopefully it will also keep dirt from sticking to them.

rossi · May 8, 2020

Barny beat me to warning about ferrous products. A green or brown (slightly more abrasive than green) scotchbrite pad works well with metal polish.

I would be careful with alloy wheel cleaner as it is frequently very alkaline. Use it by all means but rinse carefully with plenty of fresh water. I used to use RTF on my dirt bikes (road traffic film remover) which is concentrated alloy wheel cleaner - it was cheap as chips and needed to be diluted down to 10-20% so a 5L container laster for ages. Spray it on, agitate with a brush but be sure to rinse off before it drys. A mate would spray it on neat and you could almost see the bubbles coming off the alloy on his engine cases - his bike was spotless afterwards, probably because the top layer of alloy was dissolved each time.

If you are using anything corrosive, Scottoiler FS365 is good to use after rinsing to neutralise any chemicals that remain after rinsing and protect the alloy.

King Rat · May 9, 2020

Thank you. This metal polish is for putting on a cloth. A tiny dab about the size of an old bobble headed dressmaking pin did the entire wheel... put onto the cloth and then just rubbed, like you would with brasso doing the door knobs and handrails. :thumby:

It took me about an hour and a half to do the front wheel.

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