I bought an aluminium rocker cover off ebay. The extra cool slanted one. It's very grubby and needs a good clean. Any suggestions on what to use? I do not want to damage it. I plan on using the autosol when I'm ready to polish, but need help on how to get to that stage.
cheers

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better dead than red

You can get aluminium to an almost chrome like appearance by patiently polishing with increasing finer grades of sandpaper until it is ready for polishing with an autosol like polish. Hard to polish rocker covers that have ribs though as it is hard to get to them with the sandpaper obviously.

Can't help you with what grades etc, but it would need to be fine (ie 1500 at least, working up to the finer grades, then the polish).
can you get any scrap aluminium to practise on first?

Wet and Dry I have wound to be the best...and i use threee or four grades starting off around the 400/600 all the way till 1600 then use the Autosol.
With the fiddley area's I use a piece of wire (Ende's clean off so no scratches )with a 1"x2" piece of wet and dry and just keep rotating the paper every once and a while when it loads up..this way you are not waiting the paper.
It will take time but you will be happy with the result.

You will see in my photobucket http://photobucket.com/albums/v82/Gafmo/ ...Marcia my Metro rocker cover as it was and almost finished

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Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

Is it just dirty/greasy or is it scratched and crazed ? If dirty , try a good degreaser and then a product whose full name escapes me but was something like "CT16" (probably way off ...) , it's a mild acid cleaner and cleans crud and some oxidation from aluminium , then the Autosol . Just make sure you wash it thoroughly between cleaners to remove any traces of either . Also have a chat to someone who does fabrication or marine repairs and see what they suggest .

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Use a tooth brush and some old battery acid,for cleaning in the hard to get to grooves in the Rocker Cover.But make sure you wash down with soap and water and thoughly rinse with water when finished-Then polish....

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