laziness + optimism = pretty aluminum??

[johnb]

Ok let me fess up - I've been trying to find some way to clean the fingerprints and other marks from the aluminum on the side of the teardrop I'm building. Not wanting to fork out money nor wanting to deal with acid washes I've been running through everything (denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, soap and water, PHP, acetone). My wife started bringing out other things, oven cleaner, baking soda, vineagar, windex, glass cleaning wipes. Nothing was giving me any joy and the toxic waste cabinet in the garage is growing.

Then my brilliant wife brings home stainless steel wipes from weiman:
http://www.weiman.com/products/steel/wipes.php
In my scoffing haste to prove that yet another bogus cleaning product was no match for manly metal things I didn't bother digging out my test peice but rather wiped some on the side and wiped it off with a cloth. To my surprise and horror it actually worked and the pesky finger/silicon/latex/other fingerprints were now gone and a new film of something that wasn't streaky was left.

Having been too lazy to pull out a test piece of aluminum I now decided to go believe in the tooth fairy and confidently plowed ahead cleaning/polishing the entire trailer.

The good news is that it looks great and it only cost my wife 6 bucks and I have half a container of apparently non-toxic wipes left.

The bad news is that I have no idea what I've done - will this turn orange in the sun, flake off after one week. I haven't found exactly what is in this product.

Does anyone know if this is a brilliant short-cut or a new problem I've created for myself?

John

PS - some pics of alum in album - not side by side with cleaner though

[Nitetimes]

Not sure what to tell you but I am sure there will be quite a few folks anxiously awaiting further reports, both short and long term!!

[Gage]

Heck, I just use mineral oil. It shines, protects and removes finger prints. And I know what it's going to look like next month, three months or even 6 months down the line. And it's got to be cheaper.

[starleen2]

Heck, I just use mineral oil. It shines, protects and removes finger prints. And I know what it's going to look like next month, three months or even 6 months down the line. And it's got to be cheaper.

And that SAME mineral oil will also protect any vinyl product you have.

[So-Cal Teardrops]

Try lemon scented Pledge. Before we went to anodized on our trailers, the Pledge worked wonders. At shows we were constantly having to wipe everyone's grubby little paw prints off the trailer.

[brian_bp]

It seems that some people use ammonia to clean stainless steel, so that might be the cleaning agent in the wipes (although I would guess that would be apparent by scent). I didn't see ammonia in the tested chemical list, and don't know what to expect when used on aluminum.

Mineral oil would presumably be the protectant, rather than the cleaner, but many cleaning products contain both types of ingredient. I have no idea how ammonia and oil would work as a mix, but I don't see any point in combining them, anyway... clean, then protect.

[johnb]

No I didn't try amonia - the cleaner doesn't have an amonia smell either.

One of the surprises is that this layer also protects from further fingerprints. We'll see how long that lasts but touching again didn't creat new fingerprints. I think my problem before was not only human finger grease but fingerprints from putting the edging on with silicon / latex fingerprints. All of this got cleaned or covered over.

I don't know what to expect from mineral oil but this finish isn't greasy.

Did I mention it was super easy to put on - wipe on - wipe off - buff a little if uneven. Did my whole teardrop in 30 minutes.

I'll give an update after a few weeks or trips.

John

[Sparksalot]

Heck, I just use mineral oil. It shines, protects and removes finger prints. And I know what it's going to look like next month, three months or even 6 months down the line. And it's got to be cheaper.

And that SAME mineral oil will also protect any vinyl product you have.

Oooo, thanks for the tip. I'm considering a vinyl top.

[asianflava]

Try lemon scented Pledge. Before we went to anodized on our trailers, the Pledge worked wonders. At shows we were constantly having to wipe everyone's grubby little paw prints off the trailer.

Before the quick detail sprays became available, Endust was popular at a lot of car shows.

[daddiozz]

Try lemon scented Pledge. Before we went to anodized on our trailers, the Pledge worked wonders. At shows we were constantly having to wipe everyone's grubby little paw prints off the trailer.

Before the quick detail sprays became available, Endust was popular at a lot of car shows.

...probably the same thing ,repackaged

[halfdome, Danny]

I'll have to agree it's the mineral oil that is doing the work. I've used mineral oil and water but any stainless steel cleaner with mineral oil works best. It's not the best protectant as I've noticed some of it washes off after driving in rain and leaves rain streaks. It has to be re-applied to even it out again. To lightly polish and use a metal sealant I found works the best but it involves using a cyclo polisherwhich is an investment many may not want to make. I like the softer feel of the sealed aluminum and it resists scratches by grubby hands the best. Danny

[Juneaudave]

Polishing up a woody once a year or so isn't lookin so bad!!!

[LMarsh]

Does anyone know what temper aluminum they have on their tears? I believe mine is T0 and it scratches VERY easily not to mention stains easily too. I used a lime/calcium deposit type cleaner which worked pretty good and then I clear coated the whole thing. I didn't get all the spots off or the stains from trees dropping junk on it, but mostly the aluminum was so soft the palm of your hand seemed to scratch it. Seems to me I should have just gone with anodized, but I didn't know if maybe a harder temper aluminum would stay looking decent even if its still hard to keep clean.

Lucas