Removing anodization

[desi arnaz]

I am trying to polish my 4106 but it will not polish do to being anodizied. How do you remove that layer?  I have tried everything including easy off oven cleaner.

[Charles in SC]

Are you meaning Alclad? I do not think I have heard of an anodized bus.

[desi arnaz]

What is alclad?

[bevans6]

they say Greased Lightening works.  All anodizing really is, is a layer of oxidization that hardens and protects the aluminium.  Aluminum oxidizes almost instantly with exposure to air, so if you remove the anodizing you will then polish it, and it will then oxidize and tarnish instantly.  You will need to coat it with something if you want it to stay shiny.

brian

[RJ]

Thomas -

As has been mentioned, removing the anodization from your 4106 will result in constant polishing, and if you let it go, it will look worse than it does now.

Far better to have the coach painted - a good paint supplier can match the "shiny" aluminum color so closely you cannot tell it's painted until your two feet away, and even then it's difficult.

FWIW & HTH. . .

[Rick59-4104]

 I have used 2 and 3 inch Roloc backing pads with a fine (blue) 2" and 3" scotchbrite pad attached to a 1/4" die grinder to remove the anodized surface from aluminum. The medium and course grits will take the anozided off faster but will leave deeper scratches. Be warned you do need a good size compressor, mine is a 2 stage with a 10HP electric motor. The anodized coating is very thin, just a few thousands/inch thick when new, but it is very hard. After removing the anodized surface with the fine scotchbrite Roloc pad you will need to buff the aluminum with Jewelers Buffing Wheels attached to a angle grinder using a 5/8" X 11 adapter and a couple of grades of Buffing Compounds.

 For polishing information and supplies go to the Jestco Products Buffing Supply website, call them and they can steer you in the right direction. There are several polishing methods out there I have used about all of them and I highly recommend the "Jestco way"


 I am an Airstream Owner in addition to the buses and have polished 2 Aluminum Vintage travel trailers and a 22' 1972 Barth RV. I keep reading on the various Bus Forums about polishing our buses as something not to be done and to be honest if you have the time and devotion to polishing a bus I would say go for it...... Lots and lots of Airstreams are polished and they were not made of Alclad Aluminum, neither was the Barth I polished. After 3 years my Barth still looked good. I saw one of the Travel Trailers I polished 2 years later and it still looked good. The 2 travel trailers I polished were over 50 years old and on each the oxidation layer was very thin after all those years. There is a guy on the Barth Forum (Lee) who has pictures of his polished Barth and says an annual going over keeps it looking good.

Based on my experience with the travel trailers and the 22' Barth I would bet on 100 to 200 manhours (depending on how long to remove the anozided layer)  to polish a 35 to 40 foot aluminum bus.  This would be using the faster angle grinder/jewelers wheels with buffing compounds(comes in a bar) and finishing with a Cylco Buffer and liquid polish. A combination of polished aluminum/paint that will cut down on the square footage to be polished is the way I plan to go with my 1952 4103.

Alclad Aluminum (2024-T3) is an alloy aluminum with a very thin surface layer of pure aluminum, the surface will take a high polish and the alloy gives it strength, it is my understanding that aluminum aircraft are made of Alclad Aluminum. Our buses, Airstreams, and vintage Aluminum Travel Trailers made after about 1948 were not made of Alcad Aluminum I don't believe. Right after WW11 many aircraft companies , Spartan and Westcraft are a couple, made aluminum trailers using aircraft grade Alclad Aluminum but it is my understanding the supply of aircraft aluminum was used up by the late 1940's and travel trailer and bus manufacturers used a different type of aluminum.

Sorry for the length of this post but I do think it is possible to live with a polished aluminum bus if you are up to the polishing procedure and a bit of annual touch-up. Do your own homework, the Airstream Forums, Youtube and the Jestco web site are good places to start. Lots and lots of polished aluminum is out there. There is a Youtube video of a polished 4104 in South or Central America that will really inspire you, I would add a link if I was puter literate.

Rick

[Dreamscape]

Is this the one?

EMPRESA DE TURISMO SANTA RITA - GM COACH 4104

[desi arnaz]

they say Greased Lightening works.   WHO IS THEY? IT DON'T WORK.........

[Rick59-4104]

  Quote "They say Greased Lightening works" 
Probably the same folks who say use oven cleaner, It did nothing for me. ( just my experience)   

Yes that is the 4104 I was talking about.....

A good place to practice removing the anodized from the surface of the aluminum and  to see if polishing is for you is the curved part of the front bumper on a 4104. while the front long piece of my bumper is not anodized the 2 curved sections are. Polish the front piece using the techniques I have posted, using the Roloc fine blue disks on the 2 curved corners if yours are anodized and then polish them. After you are finished you will have a nice polished bumper and an idea of what it will take to polish the bus.. Then you can decide if you want to tackle the bus. Once you start on the body of the bus you are kind of committed. If you do decide not to polish the bus at least you will have great looking bumpers.

The bumpers on my 4103 are not anodized.

  Since the bumpers catch a lot of grit thrown up from the road over the years you may have to sand them in addition to the the Roloc Scothbrite Pads.

Again, all of this is just my experience, there may be a better way.
Rick


Rick

[babell2]

Here is a company that makes the polishing product for Aluminium.

http://www.nuvitechemical.com/

Brice

[desi arnaz]

nuvite is good but did not remove the anodization  today i bought a buffer kit and some red rouge,it seemed to remove  the anodization but i accidental hit my leg with it and got a nasty burn  i also fried[flames shooting out of it ] the ryobi grinder....

[Barn Owl]

100 to 200 manhours

Ugh!....... That would end it for me.

[Rick59-4104]

 Thomas,

Put the Ryobi in the trash can where it belongs  , get yourself a Makita 6" or 7" variable speed angle grinder, get a 5/8" 11 adapter, save yourself a lot of pain and call the folks at Jestco tell them exactly what you are polishing and get their input on how to procede.. Red Rouge is a polishing compound ,you need something more aggressive to remove the anodized surface.  If I was going to use red rouge it would be the next to last of about 4 or 5 cutting/polishing compounds I would use depending on the surface condition I started with and want to end up with.. Really not trying to sound like a know-it-all  here but I have been there done that and made about every screw up possible when it comes to polishing.

I have no connection with the Jestco folks, I have tried the Nuvite way it will work but get out your checkbook IMHO.

I put in my previous post about 100 to 200 hours to bring a bus to a high shine, really there is no way for me to guess/estimate how long it would take someone else to polish a bus. This would/will be the time I figure I will put into my 4103. I kind if put the hours in my earlier post to keep someone from thinking this is a weekend/one six pack project.

Think about polishing with a stationary bench mounted polisher when you are polishing on the bus. Think about what happens when you stick the edge of something into the upper part of the spinning buffing wheel, (the part of the wheel that is traveling toward you) you will get a violent kickback, if you use the lower part of the spinning wheel (the part that is moving away from you) you are OK. In other words buff AWAY from an edge not into an edge.  Same thing applies when the object you are polishing is stationary and you are moving the buffing wheel. Be real careful around edges/ trim remove any thing you can before buffing.

I know how you feel about the burn on your leg, right now I am nursing a pretty good burn on a knuckle.


Happy Polishing!

Rick