Need metal polishing advice please

This is a shot of my truck and trailer, and I'd like to get the roof and fenders to a more mirror like shine.



For the fenders and drivers side roof I have been using Bombs Away Metal polish with pretty good results, but I'm using it by hand and its a lot of work to get the tarnish off of the metal on such a large surface. I ran out of polish so the pass. side is still dull and faded. Drivers came out good however.

This is a before and after just using Bombs Away with some old MF towels, all by hand. They come out nice, but its a lot of area to cover.



I have a Flex and a PC, and an assortment of pads. I was thinking of trying some wool pads, but not sure of what cutting strength or where to start with those for metal. I have a large shop where the trailer is kept indoors, so I have access to work on it inside and in the shade.

What I have on hand:

Collinites #850 Metal Polish
P21S polishing soap (wasnt really cutting through it)
Bombs Away (on order)
Aero International Polish (on order, should be here soon)

I have watched the Flex video where they are restoring the B29 and AirForce One all with Flex's. They show the guys using wool pads but dont show what metal polish they are using.

Any tips or advice are greatly appreciated, I'd really love to get the roof of my trailer looking like an Airstream.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

I think any wool pad with a metal polish is going to yield good results, but I only have experience with Bar Keepers Friend and Blue Magic by hand. I feel like since you're working on metal you arent going to really do ANY damage to it that couldn't be easily corrected.

 

Thank you. I was thinking a wool pad for the first pass, then a white foam pad for the second pass. I have emailed a couple of the companies that did the planes with Flex's, but none have responded.

 

Right away I thought of Airstream...take a look at this site: http://www.perfectpolish.com/

Interesting use of the Cyclo Polisher.

 

Don't be afraid to use compounds and polishes on it too. Perhaps try M205 or even 105 with wool and see how black your pad gets. Follow that up with Colli Metal wax on the white pad for a spectacular result.

 

I've never tried to do anything with anywhere near that amount of surface area. I hope you'll report back with your comments and results. One more pair of products you might want to look into are the Britemax twins (Easy Cut and Final Shine) http://www.britemax.co.uk/acatalog/index.html They seem to be very highly regarded in the UK but are hard to find in the U.S. Berube's Truck Accessories in New Hampshire is the only place I'm aware of in the U.S. that carries it and ships. Berube's have a a bunch of other metal polishes as well.
Unless you're going to have the trailer clear coated you're going to need a sealant. Blackfire Metal Acrylic Sealant works well. I get four or five months durability from it. I haven't tried Britemax Final Shine.

 

Only about a foot and a half of the visible part of the roof is polished out right now. I think it would be a lot of surface and a waste of time and product to attempt to polish out the entire roof, especially when no one can see up that high. My bottle of Aero Polish arrived today. We have a local detail supply warehouse close by so I'll swing in this week and see if they have any wool pads that are cheap.

I've researched Aero Polish and it looks like a great polish, I hope it lives up to the hype.

Richy..... are you speaking from experience about using 105/205 on metal? Almost sounds crazy enough to work

 

Yes, I've used both depending on how bad the chrome was. I'll link a job or 2 if any come to mind. Both work well with chrome. I used M205 and my 3" GG DA on the H3 I posted yesterday and sealed it with System X.

 

Found one with rough chrome that I used M105 on.


Here.

 

Ok, made some serious progress on the trailer this weekend. I decided to play with the Aero Polish and see what it could do, the youtube clips made it sound very simple to apply and remove, for a metal cleaner.



The bottle arrived with the pump head stuck and refusing to work, so I just poured some in a squirt bottle and got started. I began on the fenders with the PC and an old white LC pad. It helped some but not nearly as good as a result as I was getting from the Bombs Away cleaner. I worked the Aero slowly doing multiple passes until it turned black, then as the directions stated, let it sit for a few seconds and buff off.

Not happy with the PC bogging down, I decided to take out the Flex and an old black LC pad. I turned my attention to the old and tired diamond plated stone guard on the front of the trailer. On this first test section I put the Flex on 4 and began to work slowly across the area until the polish began turning black, which didnt take very long. I began to notice that the slower I moved the Flex across the surface, the better it cut. So I worked it as slow as I could, like molasses in winter time. Let it sit for a few seconds and to my surprise it buffed right off, similar to buffing off Menzerna SF4000.... it was awesome. With the Flex, I was able to remove all the old water spots and oxidation from it. Once the test piece was finished, I removed all of the excess trim moulding so I didnt have to tape anything off and buffed out the entire front stone guard. I wish I had an after shot of the whole front but it was dark when I finished. I tested a small section of the roof, same thing, Flex and black pad, and it did an amazing job at cutting through the roof oxidation. For that I will do a full write up with a bunch of pics, but for now heres a teaser.

 

Awesome turn around!

 

Where did you get the Aero Polish? Those are great results you have shown us.

 

Looking good. Rogue bars would work as well.

 

Awesome 50/50 ... I bet it works amazing for diamond-plated toolboxes.

 

Thanks guys. I got the Aero on Amazon. It was the cheapest place I found. Works amazing, especially the removal. I couldn't believe how easy it just wiped off.

 

For some reason I think I recall seeing it at my local PepBoys too.

 

Wow, that 50/50 makes me want to find some diamond plate to play with!

 

I was going to recommend rouge (different colors) as well but looks like that stuff is working well for you. The 50/50 is looking good.