Re: [VAC] Aluminum alloy - polishing

[rlashway@xxxxxxxxxx (Lashway)]

I have included below my experience in polishing my 16ft '56 Bubble using
Rolite products.  It is rather lengthy but hopefully it will help others;

Roy
============
Roy's Polishing Experience Using Rolite Products
                   by Roy Lashway,  <rlashway@zianet.com>    5/1/2000

        After a lot of research and advice from others on the VAC list  and
Airstream List  on polish products and methods I contacted Rolite Co.,
1-800-253-6466,  about their polish products.  If you call ask for Janet.
and explain your project and she will give you good straight forward
advice.  I used their   "Pre-Polish"which really cuts the oxidation.  Next
I used their  Metal Polish which brings up a pretty good shine.  The
finally polish was with a product called AP-300 Aircraft Aluminum Polish
and this really gives a bright final finish.  Finally  I applied a coat of
Rolite Premium Car Polish and Sealant.  This is wiped on thinly  and hand
rubbed off as it hazes dry .  This is to seal the aluminum and provide
protection to polished finished.  I am not sure but am hoping that maybe an
application of this each year or more often  will keep finish up to snuff.
If not probably an application of AP-300 will be necessary.  For my unit I
used two containers each  of the pre-polish and metal polish and one can of
the AP 300  on my 16ft unit.   The polish cost was a bit over $200.00
although I think it is good stuff and worth it for the job it done.  They
will send you a sample kit of the  products and you can try them out.
        My 16ft, 1956 Bubble trailer had 44 years of oxidation built up on
it thus the pre-polish was a must.  If yours was ever polished before or
not very oxidized you may be able to by-pass the pre-polish.  Using the
samples will help you decide. I completed my trailer after about 50 hours
of actual polishing over about 5 weeks.  My right elbow and shoulder are
still in recovering.  Seriously if you have a problem with tennis elbow
this may not be a task you should try as  a lot of strain is placed on the
elbow as well as the shoulder.  The polisher I used is not light weight and
although well balanced it will develop/exercise some muscles.
        Another persons to contact is Scott at Lake Country Mfg,
1-800-648-2833, who can provide you with polishing pads.  He recommended,
and I used a different pad for each different polish.  The difference
appeared to be the length of fiber. Shortest for the pre-polish and longest
for the AP 300.  I got three sets of pads (9 pads) for my 16 ft and used 7
of them.  I  washed out pads each day and used a "clean"  set the next day.
I was only able to polish about 2 hrs per day due to temperatures (need to
be at least 60 degrees) so using one set of pads each day worked.  If I was
to do it again I would probably buy a couple more of the pads for the
pre-polish and change more often as they load up with residue..
        It is a pretty dirty job.  I bought 3 doz 12" wash  (face) cloths
from WalMart  to use as wiping rags and they worked good.  Washed them in
wash machine and dried in dryer so always had plenty on hand each day.  I
would use about a dozen in a 2 hrs period.   You use them for wiping off
residue and cleaning off the trailer skin.
        Scott at Lake Country recommend a polisher, DeWalt model 849, about
$170.00 (WEB Site Special) from Harbor Freight (1-800- 444-3353)  A fine
piece of equipment and handles very well.  I wouldn't skimp on a polisher
as it does all the work for you.  I used the DeWalt for all three polishes
and when done had very limited swirl  marks.  I did however have access to
a Cyclo polisher and I put a second coat of AP 300 on the upper half of the
trailer using  the Cyclo with foam rubber pads.   It did smooth out the
finish a bit nicer,  which,maybe,  means it removed swirl marks although I
can't be sure the reflections from a bright sun were swirl marks or just
reflections.  I suspect if I had simply applied the sealer/polish I would
have toned down these reflections.  Others have found the Cyclo to be a
good polishing machine but not  perhaps the best for  heavy oxidation
removal.  It is also a costly machine at nearly $300.00.  The sealer tends
to diminish the shine just a wee bit or better yet it kind of evens out the
finished appearance.  Gives it a somewhat softer look. The actual finish
before applying the sealer was so bright and mirror like it was almost
garish and I appreciated what the sealer did.  It is still mirror bright
but just a bit less harsh, if that makes any sense.

        During  first  polish process (Rolite Pre-Polish)I washed  trailer
and then applied polish with a dampened cloth pad(later shifted to small
house hold sponges) covering about a 2 ft sq area. Polisher speed was set
to 1500 for pre-polish and at 1000 rpm for Metal Polish and AP300.   I
acquired rubber gloves from Home Depot to protect my hands.   I worked
polisher from right to left and then back.  Keep polisher pad tilted upward
on its upper edge (as opposed to flat) as it cuts better and allows you to
control your cutting pressure. I would go over the area two or three times,
watch carefully to see how clean I am getting surface  You don't have to
apply specific pressure as the weight of the machine and the slight tilt of
polish will do the job normally.  A bit more pressure on scratches may
occasionally be used.
         You will buff up some really black "mud" which is the oxidation
you are cutting off.  If you keep working  the pad over the area you can
actually pick up a lot of this mud in the pad.  After you think you have it
clean then wipe off the remaining "mud" using a mineral spirits saturated
cloth or (I found this more useful after I learned to pick up most of mud
in the pad) Windex with Vinegar (comes in green bottle),  Works great.
Spray on and wipe until  surface it clean and dry.  This is a very messing
job at this point. The "mud" really sticks to you, kind of like chimney
soot.  When you start the new polishing pads with start flaking off lint
and this dirty stuff will get all over you, the ground etc.  Using a broom
just  stab it  to pick up from ground. This stuff will stick to shoes etc.
and will track into the house and raise the devil  with carpet.  Your face
and front part of clothing  will get filthy  as the pad is always throwing
off a bit of mud and you are really close to the action.  I got a knee
lenght shop coat to wear which I could wash every night but coveralls would
be OK.  Just don't wear your  Sunday best because  you will never get some
of these stains out.  I could work about 2 hours and then my pad was full
and I would change it out but you can play this by ear. Remember, you will
use a different pad for each polish.  Pads have different fiber content and
fiber length.  You can observe when pad is get over loaded, particularly a
problem when using pre-polish.   I would from time to time turn my polisher
up right and hold a steel bristled brush  against the pad and run it.  This
combed out the packed fibers in pad and you can get a little more mileage
out of them before changing.
        You will spend a lot of time getting ready to polish and  even more
time cleaning up.  When you stop for the day  make sure all your surfaces
are wiped clean, including the seams.  I understand that if seam have mud
left in them they are impossible to clean after five hours of drying time.
Clean your pads.  Method I was told about was to purchase a grease cutting
soap concentrate  from a janitorial supply house (in gal quantities) and
mix up at least 3 gals in a 5 gal bucket.  Put dirty polish pads in and let
them soak for 30 minutes.  Then use a toilet plunger and work the pads in
the bucket, working up and down like a washing machine agitator. I give
them each about 25 seconds of this procedure.  Your pad will typically have
a hole in the center where they are attached to the polisher. You can place
the plunger handle thru this hole and holding the pad at top do a pretty
good job of agitating. After washing the pads I would place each pad back
on the polisher and holding over the top of bucket would spin dry the pads
at 3500 rpm.  Be careful  here and keep pad as low in bucket as possible
and start spinning with one or two short burst to get heavy water out.
Otherwise you will throw stuff all over you and anything near buy.  I hung
the spun dry pads over my hot water tank in the house and by morning they
were dry.  I would use the steel brush and give them a quick hand brush
just to fluff them up the next day.  I used a couple dozen face cloths as
wiping rags and used about a dozen or so each day.  I would wash them at
night in the auto washing machine, sometimes I'd run them thru twice when I
was using the pre-polish.  Then into the dryer.  Worked great except you
have to wipe out the inside of the washing machine as a residue is left and
will stain other clothing.  Didn't see any problem with the dryer.

l would try each day to completely finish an area using all three polish
compounds.  I might do six or eight sq ft before, some time less in really
scratched areas. I would  then shift to the next polish but I wanted each
days work to be fully polished.  In a two hour period that is about all I
could get done before I ran out of gas or daylight. (I would polish only
when temp. was 60 degrees or above which meant I could not get going until
about 2-3PM and it was dark by 6PM - this was in March and I live in the
southwest but  at a 4000 ft altitude so had to wait for temperature to
rise).

The application of the second metal polish and  the AP300 followed the same
routine but these coats work a bit faster and are a lot cleaner  as much
less oxidation is coming off.  Still messy but only half as bad.  You will
start getting a good shine  after the second  product is used and the AP
300 will really touch it off.  However, as  you polish pay close attention
to the surface.  You will become familiar with quality of finish you need
and you need to polish a lot so as to not leave "swirls", pad directional
marks caused by polish pads.  If polished correctly/sufficiently you will
have little or no swirl marks.  Please understand this is very tedious and
realative slow process. You will need to polish and repolish.  Often adding
more polish to an area as all surface areas may have different degree of
oxidation, scratches, and pit marks.  You will find a lot of scratches
under the oxidation and the best time to work these out is in  the
pre-polish phase however, each product will keep working them out to a
finer degree.  Just do a good job with the more gritty pre-polish first. It
kind of serves as the foundation of all later work.
        I did  a lot of sanding on scratches at first, starting with a 400
grit, then 800 grit, and then 1000  to 1500 grit wet sanding paper.  It
seems to work best to sand only in one direction with each grade of paper.
Seems to cut better and more evenly.   However, after I became more
knowledgeable about  the polishing I stopped sanding except in extreme
cases and just polished, and polished, and polished.  Be careful here
however as to much pressure in a concentrated area can heat up and burn the
aluminum.  I finally did this toward the end of the job and was plenty
worried as it looked bad.  However, I let it cool, as others had advised,
and the next day I hit it with the polish and the color burn color came
out. I was relieved.  Part of my problem was that I was using a pretty
dirty pad which had  glazed spots on it  which generated more heat,  I was
tired, and getting impatient.  When you  first start polishing make it a
point to feel the skin you are working on so you get a feel for how it can
heat up and when in doubt take a feel and you can back off from overworking
a spot, let it cool and return to it.   Also take  warning.  When you get
tired stop.  Don't hurry your work. Do it right the first time so you don't
have to come back or worse yet have a surface that is not uniformly
polished.
        You will have areas where the big polisher can't reach.  I used a
high speed hand drill with buffer pad and occasionally a Dremel tool with
buff pad around and on window areas and hidden seams/joints.  Some times  a
finger tip and even a Q tip and a crafts stick with cloth wrapped on it was
used both for polishing and cleaning.
        When I was all done with the polishing (a week later and aftter
washing down trailer) I then put a finally coat of  auto polish/sealent
(see para. 1.).  It is a wipe on, haze up, wipe off product.  Maintaining
the finish to my satisfaction is going to be an ongoing  learning process.
In the six weeks since I "finished" I have washed it twice, wiped it down
once with wet chamois, and used a fine dust cloth to dust.  It cleans up
nicely but as you might suspect you get water spots, from rain, etc. so you
have to wipe it down.  The Chamois seems to work very nicely.
        One final comment. or repateat.  If you trailer has been polished
before you may not need to use the pre-polish  to cut oxidation and can go
right to the Metal Polish.  Experiment with samples to find out.  You may
not want to used the AP300 but it sure gives a finish shine to things and
the smoother the polish job the easier it will be to maintain.  If I need
to polish the trailer again in a year I will use the AP300 as it goes a
long way and is easy to work.  In some instances if you have apolished
trailer now you might just get by with the AP300, if you are looking for
something other then what you used in the past.