Quote:
Originally Posted by piecesparts
Grill finish is usually sealed with some form of an iodized finish. However, if you truly want to clean it, then I would use a steel wool, as suggested, but then I would follow with a 2500 grit wet-N-dry sandpaper, using WD-40 as a lubricant to keep the paper from loading up. After that I would use Mothers Aluminum polish to start and then finish with the Mothers Billet Pollish for a mirror finish.
If it is hard cleaning, then look on the web for what is called "Razor Buffs" and get some of them to use on a die grinder and get some green and white rouge polishing sticks from your local truck stop. They use it to clean the semi truck tanks and wheels. The razor buff will clean the metal and you do not have to put any real pressure on it to do the work. Follow up with a small amount of billet pollish to clean and then seal the metal with a metal sealer, like Wizards sells. That will keep the water spots off of it.
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Grilles are aluminum as you know and what gives them that polished shine from the factory is “
Anodizing.” Once this starts to get scratched up or rubbed off there is not much you can do to save it. I agree with everything “pieces parts” suggests other then there is a way easier way to strip the anodizing off. You can use oven cleaner to strip it down to the aluminum base. It beats rubbing your fingers raw as you spend forever rubbing it down with steel wool. It easily gets all the nooks and crannies. Just spray it on, enjoy a beer, then rinse the grille with water. Done.
Once you strip off the perma-shine you can polish it up better then factory. However, the part will tarnish over time and need to be re polished in the future. A mother’s
Power Ball works well for polishing. Just take your time with it.
P.S. Don’t dare get the oven cleaner on anything other then the part you are stripping.