Waxing Mill Finish Aluminum

[WhitneyK]

To Wax or Not to Wax, THAT is the Question!

Finished my li'l camper with mill finish aluminum that I obtained from a semi trailer repair shop. It has no coating on it what so ever, just the brushed finish. I have played around with some scrap pieces trying to determine if I should wax it or not. Don't like the acid washed look, too dull. Don't think I really want to polish it either.

Will the wax cause any ill effects?
Yellowing? Discoloration?
Any real benefit / protection to be achived?
Do?
Don't?
Waste of time?

Thought's and opinions?

When mounting the tongue box, I got my sweaty arm against the aluminum and now it's starting to oxidize. Thought waxing might help protect it?

[aggie79]

Whitney,

I can't answer your question directly. I wax my aluminum but it is anodized. The wax makes it easier to clean off dirt, tree sap, bird poop, etc. I use a car wax that is a liquid carnuba wax. It doesn't have any abrasives in it like most car polishes or wax "cleaners".

I think a wax would work for your purposes.

Take care,
Tom

[halfdome, Danny]

I used on one of my teardrops and was very pleased with the performance.
Makes water bead off like water on a ducks back.
Put some on a new chromed grill for my 55 Chevy and no rust so far. Danny

[BrwBier]

I'm sure the product Danny talks about is good for what it says. The label says polished aluminum. Although I have never tried this product I have tried many other waxes on my aluminum which is brushed with disastrous results. If this works on brushed aluminum I would try it in a minute. here is a copy of what I posted a couple of threads down in how to remove scratches.
Scratch removal on the aluminum that you have is a matter of what you want to end out with. I have the same product on my trailer. I tried to polish some spots on mine and soon discovered that I am not dedicated enough to "polish" my whole trailer. That said I will tell you why. I had a hard time getting the finish to look uniform. For me at least it was very hard to do. I soon became discouraged and looked for other ideas. That was when I found this site.
http://kirkhammotorsports.com/manual2/b ... hing.shtml
It is a lot of work but it looks good for years with very little work once you are done. It is also easy to fix minor scuffs and the like by just doing more of what you did in the first place. Getting the grain to be straight has a learning curve to it but can be done. It is way easier than doing a car like in the instructions on the web site. Just use the products mentioned on the site as a guide line, dollar store window cleaner works great on the aluminum. Any way FWIW, that how I did mine and I think it looks pretty good.
Brwbier
MadJack talks about a product called Shark Hide I think. I know nothing about this so maybe he will see this and chime in with details about its use.
Brwbier