Can anyone recommend a good aluminum cleaner? Not a polish but a cleaner to remove oxidation. Some personal experience with the product would be nice. I found this but the only place I found to buy it was on ebay and you have to buy a whole case for 140.00. I'm not doing that.

I also saw some stuff at MATS but I'm always leery of snake oil salesman so I didn't buy anything. I figured I'd do some research first.

 

Seek out an industrial chem. supplier dealing with soaps and that kind of stuff. When I used to live in Md. I was able to use "ZEP". They had a product called "Zep A Lum", this stuff kicked ass. Keep in mind you're using an ACID and it will take the aluminum back to "raw" eliminating any shine whatsoever. IMO if you want to get a good polish this is the way to go. You're starting out with a "blank canvas" so to speak.
Get a 2 gal. garden sprayer,saftey glasses and get with it!

 

Thank you kllee, I can tell you "been there before"

 

I use a simple home made brew of polishing compound. I think they are called rouge bars for use with a buffing/polishing wheel, they come in green, white ,red, and brown each color serves a purpose but I buy a big green and a white. Wrap a chunk of it in a rag and beat it into powder with a hammer then mix it with mineral spirits in a bottle (I use an old Gatorade bottle) thin to your likeing and rub away. Works great, the Mineral spirits clean and the abrasives polish away oxidation and scratches. I use the green til its shiney then go over it with the white for a mirror finish. It is cheap to make, lasts a long time, and takes alot of the effort out of hand polishing, less elbow grease. Plus the mineral spirits give a waterproofing effect for a while.

 

This stuff kicks ass:



Use it with a power buffer and you'll have your wheels shining in no time.

 

Mothers polish and cleaner, thinned with turpentine or diesel cleans and polishes aluminum really well....and cheap. We used that combination at ARCO to do both the wheels and the tanks (Cargo & fuel).