Finishing Raw Aluminum

[paulmon]

My Aluminium body is a few years old now and heavily marred with corrosion, and scratches. It was never polished or clear coated as I was too busy working on the car itself to worry about cosmetics. I'm thinking of wet sanding the entire car with 320 then maybe 400. I'm not planning on conventionally painting the car, I'm going to use plastidip, so I don't need to get the metal completely finished just enough that there are no blemishes preventing the plastidip from sticking.

 

Anyone have any advice for wet sanding so much aluminium? What about random orbital power sanders?

 

Paul

[timax]

Orbital sander will leave zillions of little squiggle scratches. I did this when removing paint from my car before polishing. When wet sanding i went with the grain of the alloy only. With the coating your using can you not just have a rough sanded surface? maybe the orbital is all thats needed.

Tim

[paulmon]

Orbital sander will leave zillions of little squiggle scratches. I did this when removing paint from my car before polishing. When wet sanding i went with the grain of the alloy only. With the coating your using can you not just have a rough sanded surface? maybe the orbital is all thats needed.

Tim

 

 

I was thinking maybe the rough surface would suffice. Certainly using an orbital sander will SERIOUSLY speed things up.

[MHKflyer52]

You will still see all of the little squiglely scratches from the sander if you only use the 400 grit. You will need to go to at least 1000 to have a shiney surface I would think. I sanded my aluminum with an orbital and still have some very fine scratches in the skin that you can see and I stopped at 1500 grit wet dry and still have not coated it so I can use Never-Dull on the aluminum to make it shine.

Hope this helps.

Edited April 21, 2013 by MHKflyer52

[darrell]

I just went through this with the rear of mine, I had some scuffs and scratches ( in the shape of a spare tire ) and wanted to remove them.

 

I used my orbital sander with 400 grit to remove the deep scratches and scuffs. I then went over the whole back, first with 1500 and then with 2000 by hand, wet sanding with water and a few drops of dish soap ( thanks Martin ) ... I then polished the whole area by hand with Mothers and it turned out great.

 

And while we are on the subject of refinishing aluminum I found a remarkable chemical the other day called "Alumiprep -33" , has anyone else used this ?

 

Apparently it is used in the aircraft and marine industries to clean and prep aluminum before painting.

[DeanG]

To prep for plastic dip I think I would just go over it with an aggressive 3M scrunchy pad. It will provide plenty of tooth for the plastic dip. It is flexible so you shouldn't have issues with sanding flats in all the curvy bits.

 

Good luck. Take lots of pictures of the process for us.

[paulmon]

To prep for plastic dip I think I would just go over it with an aggressive 3M scrunchy pad. It will provide plenty of tooth for the plastic dip. It is flexible so you shouldn't have issues with sanding flats in all the curvy bits.

 

Good luck. Take lots of pictures of the process for us.

 

I think you're right, I think I'm over thinking this. Perhaps the 3M pad would do. I'll try it on a couple of spots and see how clean it gets. Just need to have a clean surface free of any contamination to make sure the PlastiDip sticks evenly. Heck this stuff goes over clearcoat with no issue so raw aluminium should be a cinch.

[blubarisax]

I think you're right, I think I'm over thinking this. Perhaps the 3M pad would do. I'll try it on a couple of spots and see how clean it gets. Just need to have a clean surface free of any contamination to make sure the PlastiDip sticks evenly. Heck this stuff goes over clearcoat with no issue so raw aluminium should be a cinch.

 

I've watched some youtube videos on PlastiDip and it looks very easy. I'd just test a spot without any prep other than a good cleaning. If it does not work you can just peel it off!

[paulmon]

I've watched some youtube videos on PlastiDip and it looks very easy. I'd just test a spot without any prep other than a good cleaning. If it does not work you can just peel it off!

 

Already tested on my nose, and there are spots it didn't stick like little holes in the finish. This is what lead to wet sanding and now maybe just a good going over with a scotch brite pad. It looks fine from afar but one close look and there are spots of no plasti-dip.

 

http://www.brutusv8.com/misc/driver-side-sml.jpg

 

The other options is vinyl wrap which requires no prep but costs more money.

[coffee break]

Are you trying your experiments on spare material?

If yes, consider this a dumb question. :ack:

[paulmon]

Are you trying your experiments on spare material?

If yes, consider this a dumb question. :ack:

 

Experimenting? Platidip just peels off, so there is no risk of damage to the metal. I've used it a bunch of times, it's freaking amazing stuff.

 

Paul

[blubarisax]

Anyone ever done PlastiDip on their wheels? I run a tie down strap through my wheels on the trailer and am afraid the straps would rub it off.

[Jackal]

Anyone ever done PlastiDip on their wheels? I run a tie down strap through my wheels on the trailer and am afraid the straps would rub it off.

 

 

It will peel off in that situation. any twisting or sliding will tear it and it will peel. I love using it though, and have used it on a grill of a car that traveled 100K and it looked as good as the day I installed the dipped part. Impacts are a nonissue, but even tightening a bolt onto a dipped part, and the dip lifts and twists.

 

Here's a shot of some of the parts I've dipped. The following two pages have other dipped parts too.

http://www.westernsubaruclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=6404.25

Edited April 24, 2013 by Jackal