Brightening Castings

All things body, interior, paint, windows, tops... you know.
Post Reply
SAM. C.
Posts: 141
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:08 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Brightening Castings

Post by SAM. C. »

Does anyone have any advice on how to brighten Aluminium castings? These are in situ and I want to clea them up as much as possible and seal the with matte clear.

Thanks

Sam
User avatar
TechMOGogy
Canada
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:39 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Brightening Castings

Post by TechMOGogy »

Good old fashion elbow grease is best.
Plastic scrapers, brass and tooth brushes with degreaser.
Wire wheel or brush to finish.
I tried Alumibright chemical cleaner from Eastwood but was pretty much a waste of time.
Be careful with clear 1. will not stick very well to raw aluminum and 2. tends to go yellow with time.

Haflinger parts:
Wire brush
7B7E9F5C-6656-48EB-846A-14A1AE4C74DB.jpeg
7B7E9F5C-6656-48EB-846A-14A1AE4C74DB.jpeg (1.17 MiB) Viewed 2978 times
Wire wheel
4573D266-6089-4C25-BBBF-5653F21B62FB.jpeg
4573D266-6089-4C25-BBBF-5653F21B62FB.jpeg (656.1 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Before
4F3731D2-726A-4FDC-B999-91D51A499667.jpeg
4F3731D2-726A-4FDC-B999-91D51A499667.jpeg (670.45 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
After
5DD30672-A716-4463-A75C-BAB763E48D1D.jpeg
5DD30672-A716-4463-A75C-BAB763E48D1D.jpeg (765.96 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
Andre did my Pinz and used a similar manual process and finished with a very light coat of alum spray paint on the cast alum
475628AD-3DE0-40AF-AE35-DF75ABCAA121.jpeg
475628AD-3DE0-40AF-AE35-DF75ABCAA121.jpeg (178.93 KiB) Viewed 2978 times
72 Pathfinder | 75 710M 2.7i | 96 350GDT Worker
one2many
Australia
Posts: 178
Joined: Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:53 pm
Location: Melbourne Australia

Re: Brightening Castings

Post by one2many »

To back up TechMOGogy's advice....I used a similar aluminium cleaner, BLITZ made by ChemTech, I also found it to be a waste of money...sure it did clean but no better than any degreaser and I didn't notice the "brightening" effect at all. Just wash them as best you can with whatever you've got lying around with a weak solution as strong mixes of highly alkaline or acid degreasers can make castings a dull powdery grey by removing some of the zinc from the surface of the casting. When clean the best thing I've found is elbow grease and a brass bristle toothbrush and small brass wire brushes and wheels, use wire wheels as well but use a MUCH softer approach with them. Even if you happen to accidentally remove some surface zinc with cleaning solution and they goes dull and powdery you'll be surprised how easily they can be brought back to their original lustre with just a brass brush. Super fine wet and dry sandpaper like 2000 grit also does a great job at the end. I also have found common clear coat (enamel etc.) to be a waste of time...like TecMOG said it just doesn't wanna stick, I'd choose a purpose made product made for sealing aluminium like mentioned above. If you've got access to a blasting cabinet I believe glass bead, soda or walnut shell work very well but I doubt that'll work out very well in situ :? . Have fun, I reckon brightening filthy castings is a really rewarding job.
1985 pinzgauer 712K factory 2.7lt civilian (RHD, 4 door K)
1979 Volvo tgb 1314a (under construction to om606 diesel/722.6 trans. Dual cab/tray)
User avatar
davies435
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:19 am
Location: Brit in Slovakia

Re: Brightening Castings

Post by davies435 »

DO NOT LAUGH......but in work we used to clean bikes aluminium and stainless-steel casings/ fittings with "cheap as chips" harpic toilet cleaner, a nylon brush, 30 minute tea-break and a garden-hose (sometimes it needed doing twice)
Attachments
22688707_10155587364851206_5979406776654445308_n.jpg
22688707_10155587364851206_5979406776654445308_n.jpg (59.54 KiB) Viewed 2769 times
User avatar
rmel
United States of America
Posts: 1394
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2011 12:19 pm
Location: Woodside, CA
Contact:

Re: Brightening Castings

Post by rmel »

Hydrochloric acid!! Just what Grandma used for those nasty porcelain stains [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Puller: 71' 710K 2.7L EFI aka Mozo
Follower: Sankey MK 3, 3/4 Tonne
Rescue Pinz: 73' 712MK

Driver: Ron // KO0Q
Post Reply