I purchased someone's recommended blue bottle of polish and used quality spin type buffer. WOW. I can now shave outside. The outside clean up so nicely that I just had to get new Ultra wheels. This thing is just awesome looking now, and I'm looking at ways to keep it that way. Most of the standard covers made seem to be 18 to 20' and then from 20 to 24'. Mine is a 20 footer. You can see my problem, get the smaller one and hope it fits or get the larger one and have a sloppy fit. The custom made units seem logical, but they are three times the price. Anyone else experience cover anxiety?

Terry,

Glad the product worked for you....I too, was impressed, after years of trying everything on the market for aircraft aluminum......

"Keep it that way"?......For that, you'll need an environment free of oxygen....maybe a big vacuum bubble that you pump-down every time you park ...........

Other than bird doo-doo, sap, roof run-off stains and other "mechanical" deterioration, a cover won't extend the life of your aluminum surface luster....That's an oxidation process, needing air & moisture, neither of which is prevented with a cover. The shiny aluminum is simply trying desperately to return to its natural state of being bauxite, just as the Laws of Thermodynamics predicted (i.e.: all steel "wants" to return to iron ore, so it rusts - painting slows the process, but in the end, oxidation will always trump you....)

Here's some choices:

1. Shine it and leave it "uncoated"....best luster - most work.....plan on quarterly re-do at minimum.....(but it'll go MUCH faster than the first time....)

2. Wax it..shine lasts longer, but luster is compromised (a subjective point.) Use an easily strippable wax so you don't kill yourself getting back to Ground Zero each time.....

3. Investigate "permanent" coatings - POR makes one...never tried it. I have to think it's epoxy-based...it would be a TOUGH re-do if ya didn't like the end result......

Any coating will extend lifespan of the shine but compromise luster...It's just a matter of choices....The older I get, the more I find myself the compromising sort of guy! Good Luck......

The polishing was brutal the first time, but should be much easier to maintain once in a while.

Terry did you do your whole coach,like an airstream.My 25' has bad paint,silver is peeling an unless BARTH has a 20 year warranty i WISH i was thinking of just polishing the bad silver parts and leave the other paint. BRES

No, I just polished the aluminum sections, roughly half the side. Most of the upper section is painted which just needed a little waxing.

Terry was yours painted or bare to start with,if painted how did you remove it.I have peeling silver,but the blue and red seem to be holding up ok.Silver is about 6" stripe then blue then silver, so i don't know if i can tape them off or do the whole bottom half.Can you give me a time est. of how long it took to do yours. TIA. BRES

Bres, I got mine a year ago, so unsure about the paint. I would say it's about 70% aluminum. The polishing took 8 hours plus another 8 hours of hand polishing to get to the small areas and edges that the power buffer could not get to. That second eight hours really depends on how picky you are for the close inspection. (I tend to be a little anul) I highly recommend the makita 9227c polisher. I did a lot of research before buying this one. It's a common buffer used by painters. (approx $200.) Worth the price if you are into waxing, compounding, & polishing your own vehicles.
PS. what kind of hotrods are you into? I'm currently building a repowered 50' jeepster.

For what it's worth, a couple of pointers:

1. Compounding aluminum is DIFFERENT than waxing & polishing....The pad should move in straight lines, NOT orbital, overlapping with each pass. Try to go with the "grain" of the aluminum on final passes. One needs to "unlearn" common power-waxing procedures to get good results on bare surfaces.......

2. Biggest mistake is usually TOO MUCH material applied, so the pad slides rather than cuts.....A "fingerprint" of product, rather than a "dab", every 8-10" should suffice. Pad should always appear dry - if it's sticky, you're just moving compound around - not reforming the surface. On my totally unpainted 24 footer, one pad lasts for the whole job with maybe 1-2 rakes with a hacksaw blade to refresh the pad......

3. Slower rotational pad speeds are best...the higher the rpm, the faster you need to move the head....an arm-killer about half way thru the day.......

4. For crevices, seams & rivet dimples with black residue left over, use a Dremel with a small cotton or felt wheel dipped in corn starch - makes short work of the detailing.

Can we see a picture of either one or both of these coaches. Sounds like an interesting project.

What is the name of the polish? Have I missed that?

------------------

Dave,

Here's the URL:
http://www.heavymetalpolish.com/Products/Polishes/

You want Green for the first application, and Blue for final finish and future maintenance.

I can send a pic of mine as soon as I read the 47 pg book that came with my digital camera and Dave can relay the pic here 'cause I don't have a clue.........

I got a new camera, but still involved in the learning curve. I did not use compound on my aluminum. Just used the blue bottle of polish. After significant use, I discovered that the faster speed did a better job. I tried just using a little at a time but it just was not working well. I probably used too much as I was slinging it on adjacent surfaces. I went through a whole bottle on the one job. No extra work aroung the rivets. It might have gone quicker had I used a more aggressive polish first. I'm still learning...

LEE, I don't understand this(Compounding aluminum is DIFFERENT than waxing & polishing....The pad should move in straight lines, NOT orbital, overlapping with each pass. Try to go with the "grain" of the aluminum on final passes. One needs to "unlearn" common power-waxing procedures to get good results on bare surfaces.......)
All i have ever seen are the orbital or dual action??I have used small pads on a die grinders to polish stainless steel drip rails on my cars is that what you mean.I to have not finger out that new camera ether,hopefully i will soom have lots of cool photos of barth, bonneville,ect.TERRY my hotrods are #1 1962 belair 9 passenger wagon/350/700R4/373=SMOKE, #2 1966 Caprice more door hardtop/Factory 427,#3 long term project 1952 TRUIMPH.Thinking about making the wagon my toad BRES

"350/700R4/373=SMOKE"
............................................

Bres, a wagon is a neat sleeper. Does it have posi?

I an LT1/4L60E in a Jag, and it needs posi badly.

Bres,

You're absolutely right...I can be a confusing sort.........

A lot of what I've learned first hand is also covered at a great website, and they explain it much better than I did - go to:

http://www.perfectpolish.com/

They base their info around Nuvite, an aluminum restorer that's usually the time-honored standby for aircraft owners - I used the product for over two decades. It's the product-of-choice for Air Force One, so its got a great history & reputation. The various how-to pages obviously talk about their product, but the basic info can be applied to almost any aluminum polish.....

I recently switched to Heavy Metal Polish only because I think it goes on easier and involves less elbow grease than Nuvite. I also think the final luster may be just a bit less, but that's subjective, and regardless, I'm no longer after trophy-class finishes - just attractive ones, done easier.

Look over the Nuvite site...I think it will answer a lot of your questions that I didn't.