i was wondering if it would be a good thing to paint clear coat over the aluminum trim after i buff it out. also would this be good for chrome to? anyone tried it? does it eventually flake off? i know how to paint a car, but never tried it on smooth stuff. basic car prep tells me it wont stick for long. just wondering. would be nice to buff this stuff out once and then be done forever.
Dont clear the stuff...As you noted, it wont stick for long. There are several products on the market for protecting polished aluminum and such. Might want to try them...As for aluminum trim...The rear window trim, head light surrounds and hood lip trim are aluminum (Some hood trims are stainless) The rest is stainless steel if its not chrome plated...Shark hide is one of the aluminum protectant coatings out there. Just wipe it on and its good to go for a few months...Good luck!!!
getting the factory coating off before buffing was a problem for me . this...Shark hide...sounds like the answer for trim...
You can remove the anodized coating using Hair & Grease drain cleaner. http://1bad6t.com/Maverick/maverick_31.html
Yep, Mavman is right. I've revamped my painting techniques and products used over polished surfaces many times through the years with no difinitive way to make it last more than a few years at most. Any coating needs either a chemical or mechanical bond and plain polished surfaces will give you neither one. There are some industrial coatings out there that will work.. but unfortunately they will yellow over time. Use the new age protectants and reapply every once on a while.
Oven cleaner will also remove the anodizing off of the aluminum trim. Nasty stuff, so use gloves and don't inhale the fumes.
Yep. Used it many times but you have to get the original formula.. not the nice smelling EPA friendly versions. Also worth noting/warning you guys that you can very easily damage parts with the chemicals in these formulas(can't remember the active ingredient that does the stripping) if left to "soak" too long. I also use it to remove heavy carbon deposits on pistons and valves and if a few minutes or hour is good?.. then overnight must really make things even nicer, right? NOT!
Sodium Hydroxide is the active/nasty ingredient that removes the hard anodizing...Eastwood sells a product that will remove anodizing without harming the parent material. Easy off will strip paint as well as etch aluminum ( not good) and stain, stainless steel if left on too long. It will corrode copper,brass, removes undercoating too...
yes sodium hydroxide (Lye) removes the hard anodize from Aluminum , but after polishing you must clear coat or re- anodize. Polyurathane clear coat work well.
I get the cheap Oven cleaner from the Dollar Store. as before...the newer stuff you could probably drink...LOL
I've been a pro-painter almost all my life and have tried everything from epoxies, to polyesters, polyamides, and hugely expensive top-line poly's. Any hidden tricks or special formula's on how you keep it stuck to a polished surface over the long term? In my experience, and I'm known to polish almost everything inside and out, any little breach in the coating WILL inevitably cause it to delaminate and the breach site will continue to grow in size. Road debri, water, sunlight, and air pressure continually eats away at any exposed edges. The one very critical thing to also remember when clearing any external trim that see's weather, aside from heavy repeated precleaning with acetone, is that you MUST at least partially clear around the backside of the part being coated to create a sort of wrapped and encapsulated part so as to avoid any additional edges being exposed. Otherwise it's just a matter of time before those edges begin to lift and delaminate. After a season or two you'll literally be able to flake it away with a fingernail. Ever try to paint chrome? Like I said earlier, either chemical or mechanical bonds are required to stick a coating for the longterm and you get neither one of those on top of a polished surface. Also consider that the elasticizer resins will continue to cure out and the parts coating will shrink over time as well. This also causes higher delamination rates as the part heat cycles while the coatings are simultaneously shrinking over time. It causes delamination on the harder radii(remember that the coatings are thinnest there) that you can't see or feel because it doesn't bubble out to any notable degree. Then one day a little pebble hits that loosely bridged coating to allow the elements to get under it and viola, nice little silver dollar sized piece of coating starts flapping in the wind. My best advice is to NOT coat anything on the exterior of a car that is chromed or fully polished. Seal it up with some type of clear polymer and treat it like you would paint with the idea that it needs maintenance and protection just the same.
No tricks as you stated anything other than Anodizing or passivating the finished metal will fail in short time.
