Best Way To Remove Heavy Oxidation From Aluminum?

[skiguy]

My spring project is to refinish my wake tower on my 05 22v. The powdercoat has been flaking off in spots for years. I recently removed the tower from the boat and stripped all the powder coat off with a chemical stripper.

Here’s a pic showing one of the flaked areas and the heavy oxidation


After fully stripping the tower, I ran over the whole thing with a sander and 220 grit sandpaper. My expectations were the sanding would remove all the oxidation, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Some areas look pretty good after one pass but others like below are still heavily oxidized. I sanded this area pretty long and this was the best I could do.


Any ideas on what I can do to get this aluminum cleaned up?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[freeheel4life]

There are lots of aluminum cleaners out there you can purchase that are acidic. You can start with those and the use a buffing compound and polish after. If you Google "polishing pontoon boats" you can find some neat videos. Theres also a neat one where a guy puts mirror finish on a semi fuel tank I've watched before.

[skiguy]

I ran some 60 grit sandpaper over the tower badges with my DA sander and got the majority of the oxidation. Looks like I’ll need some chemical help for the rest of it. Will report back on how the Starbrite aluminum cleaner works for this project.




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[lee]

You can remove the button head screws with an allen wrench, might make it easier to clean.

[skiguy]

You can remove the button head screws with an allen wrench, might make it easier to clean.

I gave it a try but stripped the Allen head on one of them. Very heavy oxidation so the screws are very stuck. I may try some heat and see if that helps. I’m considering drilling them out if I can’t get the spaces in between cleaned to my satisfaction.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ritomas]

The JJV's aluminum cleaner is a good product also. It is environment-friendly and no acid.