Grumman Olson aluminum truck revisited

[tuscarora dave]

Maybe a year or so ago, a helper and I tackled the oxidized finish on this Grumman Olson truck. Back then it took us around 40 hours to polish the ten year neglected aluminum panels on this truck. I also said in this thread http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...ns-please.html that I would get back with photos of the truck once the owner had gotten it lettered up with his business info and signs installed but I never did get a chance to do that.

The owner of this truck had done some mold and mildew odor removal for me this summer when while I was testing out some microbial digester cleaning products in my personal car the test went south. The mold and mildew became a major problem after I really soaked my carpets with this cleaner. While the cleaner did a fantastic job of cleaning my stained up carpets, it had begun raining very heavily about an hour after testing the product. It rained very heavily for 2 straight weeks after this test so the car stayed sealed up with wet carpet and backing. It took 5 days running a super high output Hepa/UV/Ozone air scrubber in the car to kill the mold and it's terrible smell. The car was like brand new after "The Mitigator" ran his machine in the car. I made a deal with him that I would go over the "Mold Machine" (The name of the big aluminum truck) and put a nice shine back on it for him in trade for his services.

Well this turned out to be the busiest year I have ever had detailing and I just now got to shining up "The Mold Machine". I brought in a young helper who had never run a polisher in his entire life and he did an outstanding job at running my Flex 3401 on the truck. I tried the rotary and same as the first time I worked on this truck, I felt that it wasn't the right tool for the job so I used my Meguiar's G110V2 and Cyclo pads while my helper beat up all of the old nasty tore up pads that I would never have used otherwise. I was impressed at how well the G110V2 did on this job as I ran it hard all day long yesterday.

We tested out Collinite's #850 Metal Wax on this job and it excelled at getting the work done fast and hopefully will leave a durable protection behind as all of Collinite's other products do. The last time I worked on this truck I used Poorboy's Pro Polish topped with Meguiars #21 except for on the hood where I tested out Collinite's #845. It probably will come as no surprise that the hood had the least amount of oxidation on it this time around. We got the entire box polished out yesterday with the #850 and I'll have to return to do the doors and hood in a few weeks. Being a man who likes to test things out, naturally I stripped the fresh coat of #850 off of the entire lower panel of the passenger side of the box and then applied Opti-Coat 2.0 to just that panel and will observe the difference (if any) in the springtime.

The owner and I decided that once a year polishing is just not often enough to keep this truck looking the way he likes it so we have decided to step that up to twice a year. The owner is a very special friend to me and will always have the benefit of my detailing experience whether I am operating at a professional level or just as an enthusiast detailer.

My helper is actually a co worker at my regular job and he is by far the best worker we have ever had to run our 1 gallon bottling operation. His work ethic and integrity exceeds most other 23 year old's that I know, so I knew he would do a great job for me at least for a day. This was a big job to cut your teeth on as a polisher operator. After 5 straight hours of first time polishing with the 3401 he said to me "Now I understand what it means when you talk about running a business outside of your day job and I have a whole new respect for you." He followed that with "I ain't gonna lie my freeking arms and shoulders are wrecked, I don't know how you do it." I told him to wait 2 days and then tell me how his arms and shoulders feel.

I figured before we get too far into the job that I should stop to take a few photos. Here are a few as we got started.






We stopped for a cold soda and my helper didn't finish his and he went back to work. As I was finishing my soda and taking a few photos, somebody came along and stole my helpers unfinished soda. I think this little bandit was quite thirsty.




Here are a few photos of the work we got done yesterday.




Polishing aluminum is very dirty work. Everything gets black all over it. If you have never done this type of work, here is what the pads look like after polishing aluminum.



Overall I have to give two thumbs up for the Collinite #850 Metal Wax and I'll report hack on my findings concerning the Opti-Coat 2.0 in the springtime.

Thanks for looking, TD

[DaGonz]

I did a canteen truck (aka "roach coach") for a neighbor who was selling it. Aluminum polishing is dirty work, I ended up tossing the pads when I was finished!

[Flash Gordon]

That turned out great Dave! I know you were happy to have a helper on that one

That poor dog probally cut its tounge on that can. Trouble will only drink from a Crystal bowl

[LuxuryMobile]

That is a whole lot of surface area to cover. Impressive work. Looks great.

[Mike Phillips]

Nice work Dave... what a huge undertaking...

Projects like the above are what you save your tatty buffing pads for... pads that are too worn to use on a nice car are perfect for projects like this because they're going to get destroyed anyways...

[Flannigan]

Great work! That truck looks brand new!

[tuscarora dave]

I did a canteen truck (aka "roach coach") for a neighbor who was selling it. Aluminum polishing is dirty work, I ended up tossing the pads when I was finished!

Yeah, the first time I polished out this truck I think I went through something like 10 PFW pads. This time around we trashed 3 old tattered 5.5" Poorboy's VC pads and 2 Cyclo pads. Not too bad actually.

That turned out great Dave! I know you were happy to have a helper on that one

That poor dog probally cut its tounge on that can. Trouble will only drink from a Crystal bowl

Thanks Flash!! I actually tried to take the soda can from the dog but he bit down on the pull tab and ran off with the can hanging from his mouth. It was pretty funny to see.

That is a whole lot of surface area to cover. Impressive work. Looks great.

Thanks Stephan! While working on this one, I got a call from a guy who feeds me lots of work. He just bought a used semi and low boy rolling garage for his sprint car race team. I am going to try to get that all polished up for him. I have yet to see it but I know it's Black and I assume that it's 4x the surface area as this job was...

Nice work Dave... what a huge undertaking...

Projects like the above are what you save your tatty buffing pads for... pads that are too worn to use on a nice car are perfect for projects like this because they're going to get destroyed anyways...

Thanks Mike. I have a 12 cubic foot bin filled with all the pads that I either tried and didn't care for or tore up from normal wear and tear. I don't throw them away because I am the kind of guy that will polish anything that can be polished. You just never know what someone might think should be polished out so I keep all of my old pads.

Great work! That truck looks brand new!

Thanks. The owner of this truck hears that all of the time. He says he can't keep track of all of the comments that he gets on the sun beaming off of the truck while he's on the job. His business definitely gets noticed so he sees the twice a year polishing well worth the money.

[yvan lacroix]

Do you have an update on this project?

[MshawnBauer]

This is awesome! These are the posts I love reading/seeing! What an undertaking! Amazing turnaround. How long do you anticipate it will hold?

[runrun411]

Man, that is an awful lot of real estate.