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cleaning ali truck sides, quick reply please ?
hi all, just been out on site to see an old mate, among the hoard of stuff he wants doing are two 3yr old trucks he’s just bought, with aluminium sides.
they were owned by a hire co and were signed, so as you can imagine, there’s nice clean ali where the old stickers were removed, and grotty stuff all around,
my suggestion was that he tried a very fine sandpaper around the letter edges to remove the ridge, but he wants to grit the whole side ! i dont think this would be good cos moisture could get in the scratch marks from the paper, not to mention an iffy surface to apply too, so i wanna tell him what to do before he gets his gofer on the job with a sander !
what can i suggest he do to clean it up ?
i plan to ut a large flood section over the letering, and his new ontop, so unsightly isnt a problem, obviously smothness is !
thanks in advance.
Hugh
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8 Replies
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cut and polish no good?
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brillo pads or just wire wool works well, also fine wet and dry with slightly soapy water is also ok
Peter -
As it’s quite ‘industrial’ and not a new Rolls – a drill with a polishing mop and ‘t-cut substitute’ AKA cheap JIF scouring cream – the mild abrasive is much rougher than T-cut and blasts through the dirt, but doesn’t scrape or scratch.
Or a Peter – proper ‘wet-and-dry’ fine grit sandpaper – done wet.
Dave
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Hugh
I had a job like this the other day and found that Jif did a far better job than all the specialist "Sign" cleaners I had.
Russ
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Or he could hire an auto detailer to buff it out.
Make sure you clean it properly afterwards with Rapid Prep to remove any "greasy" or "siliconey" residue before sticking stuff to it.
love….Jill -
Peter is on the right lines
Use 3M Scothbrite, they use it in the fabrication business to put grain in ali/ stainless and to clean it. You can get Green or Brown, can be bought from any car paint shop, they also use it to key up paint when spraying cars.
If you run in the same direction you will put a grain in it like when it was new (like brushed ali). Will bring it up a treat!
A guy came in for some stickers on his titanium road bicycle frame, told him to use that after peeling off old stickers and it looked real good.
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thanks chaps and chapesses, seems that jif is the right tool, if i were doing it i’d use an orbital sander with the scotchbrite pad on, but he wants to do it, and i dont give tools to buildrs, well.. not tools i want back working !
Ta.
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Hugh.
Use cellulose thinners. It will take off ANY glue, just be sure to rub with the grain of the ali so to speak. Use to do this day in day out many moons ago.
Try not to rub it with anything abrasive as in time the ali will actually corrode. It will go dull then a whiteish colour. yuk!
Matt
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