aluminum rv

[gumball]

My Cousin has a 35ft aluminum-side Rv that is badly oxidized.he wants to paint it,but i'm trying to convince him to polish it. My question is, what product would be best to do the job and how much would i need?

[Kristopher1129]

That's gonna be one heck of a job. Wolfgang has got some good aluminum products. Only problem is, you're gonna go through a LOT of product trying to polish that thing. Maybe the bulk section has something?

[tuscarora dave]

Check this thread out http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/24961-grumman-olson-aluminum-body-truck-oppinions-please.html where I polished out this Grumman Olsen aluminum truck. It took 2 quarts of Poorboy's World Pro Polish, 7 purple foamed wool pads and smoked the backing plate velcro on my Flex 3401. This job took 40 hours to complete with me polishing and a helper cleaning up the black residue left behind by the polishing process.

If you mind getting completely covered in black that doesn't wash off easily I'd think twice about doing a job like this.

I tested a lot of different products and all of my polishers and the flex handled it with flying colors and the PP was the best match for the aluminum.

My Makita rotary was not effective at all on this job and got very hot within the first hour of polishing so I switched to the 3401 and tortured it for about 30 hours of actual polish time leaning into it the entire time.

This http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/flex-polishers/29075-flex-3401-backing-plate-surgery.html was what I had to do to the Flex Backing plate afterward.

[BillE]

Do search for Airstream Trailers clubs/ forums etc.

I've seen some of of those things polished so well that it actually hurts to look at.

Bill

[Mike Phillips]

I did some polishing on an Airstream trailer once and it appeared to have some type of coating over the aluminum. The coating was oxidized and so was the aluminum under it. The owner wanted the aluminum skin polished out to look like chrome but a little testing showed that before I could polish out the aluminum I would first have to chemically strip the coating or abrade it off by compounding, either way the owner realized it was more complicated and mostly time consuming then he wanted to invest time and resources into.

Whatever you're working on, it's always a good idea to do a little testing to the coating or material first to see how it reacts to being abraded.

:)

[gumball]

Thanks for all your help

[chaotik]

Starting in 1965, Airstreams came from the factory clearcoated. But it was a special coating called " plasticoat".... Designed to stay pliable, but as the coating deteriorates , it let's the aluminum under it oxidize. Most people use an aircraft paint stripper to get it off. And the best results on an airstream are usually accomplished with tons of hours of work using aircraft polishes. These get pretty pricey ( like $50.00 and higher for a 1 lb. Can ) And that is for the finest finishing polish. Usually you will have to go over the entire thing atleast twice, if it's in fairly good condition... Once with a higher cutting polish and the the finishing polish.

I do polishing.... Mostly big rigs, as I am in that industry in my daily job. If you don't have the patience to do hours and hours of dirty repitition.... Don't even consider doing this!

[oldmodman]

Does Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish come in a 55 gallon drum?

With this it could get really expensive.

Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish 10 oz. (http://www.autogeek.net/mo5101.html)

[chaotik]

I highly doubt that it would be aggressive enough to polish an Airstream with. Even though it might be a good product, I would have to say it's more for someone doing regular upkeep on well taken care of aluminum, etc. Not for a full cut and buff polishing job.