Not too much aluminum alloy to polish on my "Military Green," but as I've already mentioned
in this recent posting, on the Nortons I always favored that
original NEVR-DULL wadding. Sure, I've also tried tube and bottled pastes and other compounds. I've even boiled a Norton Commando alloy head in a big steel stock pot with rhubarb instead of bead-blasting (an old British motorman's trick that really worked, same as soaking rusty steel or iron bits in a 9-to-1 solution of water and molasses for a week or so), but the NEVR-DULL gets handily into and even more importantly
easily out of all those little nooks and crannies without leaving those pasty dark grey crudlets behind that other polishes can, and the shine lasts pretty long. I expect it leaves behind an ultra-light film of its mineral oil base or something after light buffing.
Thing is, I always sort of considered that nose-to-the-motor "quality time" a key part of regular preventative maintenance: That's when you'll spot that just-loosening nut or minor oil leak before it becomes a real problem or you're standing on the side of the road with one of your trouser legs soaked in multigrade. Hence a post-polish "longterm sealer" has never been an item on my "must-have" list. That said, I recently picked up a big 16 oz. bottle of something called
Alcoa PDQ Aluminum Polish made by arguably
THE Aluminum Company (or "Aluminium" for you quaint Britnoids) for maybe a buck or so, along with armloads of other boating items, lubricants and random needful outdoorsy crap for pennies on the dollar, when the huge local Gander Mountain sporting goods store went belly up along with the rest of the company. Apparently, this PDQ product, which may sadly be discontinued now, or at least very hard to find, comes up again and again and again as being
"the best ever aluminum polish, period" in several trucking and firehouse forums frequented by guys who might spend whole afternoons buffing those big spinny things while waiting to roll. Mothers brand polishes also earned frequent kudos. I'm led to understand that the Alcoa PDQ is sort of a single-step polish with a unique light sealer, in contrast to Alcoa's more involved 1-2-3 multi-step system. I finally tried the PDQ a couple of days ago on my newly "de-greened" gearbox inspection cover, which was looking a awfully "flakey" paintwise, and what can I say...It's shiny. The stuff itself seemed a tad thinner than other bottled polishes I've used, but clearly did the job very well. The bottle I have mentions a compatible long-term Alcoa sealer, but like I said, I'm unlikely to be hunting for that any time soon.
As for chrome polish and waxes for the painty bits,
please see my earlier posting.If it's a really cobwebby "barn find" or some leaf-covered "back yard sentinel" whose nooks and crannies had been serving as a safe deposit box for the acorns of several generations of squirrels that you're wanting to scrape the barnacles from and commence its resurrection, then after a good Wisk laundry detergent and water scrub and rinse, allow to dry and commence a thorough rubdown with rags soaked liberally in Marvel Mystery Oil, topped off by the emptying of a can or two of WD-40 all over and into all quarters. I guarantee that whole endeavor will appear FAR more promising in the light of day--or once you've sobered up. That WD-40 will also evict any wasps in residence.
Topic: oxidation on all covers (Read 2883 times)