Polishing aluminum is alot of work, but worth it

[Westside88]

I kept my old Protech toolbox for use on my new pickup. Of course that requires cleaning it up first. It's 20 years old and was pretty oxidized, but I think it cleaned up pretty well. I used a combination of mothers, chemical guys heavy metal a mothers powerball, a couple cheap cotton buffing wheels for the cord less and a whole lotta elbow grease. Not bad for an old toolbox.

[redi]

Wow looks great. Nice work

[Fastass350]

Looks great! I love the satisfaction of getting a good shine on aluminum, it’s not easy!  Good job 👍

[huntnphool]

 Looks good, you should try doing a boat and trailer.

[Harbor_hunter]

Looks nice!

[Westside88]

Looks good, you should try doing a boat and trailer.

That sounds like a multi day affair. I’m planning to pick up an orbital polisher from Griots that with the right pad would probably save time on this type of project. 

[Magnum_Willys]

Looks great- did you have to strip a protective coating off first?

[rasbo]

Bought the ball and two jars for my boat. The box looks great

[Westside88]

Looks great- did you have to strip a protective coating off first?

No they don’t have any coating to start with

[Westside88]

Bought the ball and two jars for my boat. The box looks great

The power ball saved time for sure, but still required a lot of hand work to even things out. In the future I want to try an orbital polisher with a microfiber cutting pad. There’s a video on YouTube of a guy polishing diamond plate using the chemical guys polish. That looks like a good way to go

[Stein]

I did this for the diamond seat boxes on my boat last summer while we were locked off the water.

I bought a dual action polisher and a heavy wool pad, it worked about 1,000 times better than all the other things I tried.

I used this stuff, it's a two step process outlined in the videos.  It took some time and multiple treatments, but for the super nasty salt corrosion it ended up working very well.

http://www.californiacustom.com/purple_metal_polish.html

The benefit is you now have a da polisher and can get different pads and chemicals and now polish and remove scratches on boat or truck paint.

[cavemann]

I did my Stryker years ago..  I used Shark Hide when I was done and worked really well for me.  It was a pain but kept it protected very well and kept a shine.

[Blacktail Sniper]

That looks really nice, effort well spent.

[huntnphool]

Looks good, you should try doing a boat and trailer.

That sounds like a multi day affair. I’m planning to pick up an orbital polisher from Griots that with the right pad would probably save time on this type of project.

 I got tired of cleaning the black residue from each diamond on the trailer and had it Line-X’d but still polish the boat and trailer once a year.

I did my Stryker years ago..  I used Shark Hide when I was done and worked really well for me.  It was a pain but kept it protected very well and kept a shine.

 I tried the Shark Hide once but it dulled the polished finish a bit so haven’t done it since.

[Westside88]

Got the old box mounted on the new truck today. I'm glad I was able to repurpose this one, they've gotten pretty expensive.