Cleaning Aluminum Daimond Plate

[Dasvigo]

Anyone got any cheap ways to clean and even shine up a little old diamond plating? Looking for something cheap that I may already have or can find locally. Need to remove a little surface rust & dullness on the running boards and tailboard of an old fire engine. Trying to make it look a little more presentable.

Thanks in advance for any ideas

[hotroddwayne]

The truckers use some kind of acid wash on their Alcoa aluminum wheels, if you could find out what it is exactly that would be the way to go. Makes aluminum look very clean... not shiny, but in your case a good acid wash like that would clean up the diamond plate & remove rust stains & grime... & then clearcoat it to preserve your work.

[Psychoholic]

I imagine some 'engine bright' from a motorcycle shop would work for that.

[Dasvigo]

I am familiar with engine bright, I have heard alot about the acid wash and stuff found at truck shops. This morning I went down to the FD HQ & looked around in their shed full of cleaners and random chemicals. Most the shit there no one even knew exactly what it is for. Besides half that shit will probably give me cancer. So am looken for somethin to use myself

[R U INJRD]

I saw a homemade receipe posted somewhere a while back. I thought I bookmarked it, but I can't find it now. It supposedly worked very well, but was only slightly less dangerous to cook up than meth.

[StrayCat]

Whatever you choose to use, make absolutely certain it is made for alluminum. Alot of the metal cleaners have a chemical in it ( may be amonia if memory serves correct), and a buddy of mine made the fateful mistake of not reading the fine print where it stated "do not use on aluminum", and he sprayed it down, hosed it off to a brand new looking set of WHITE aluminum wheels. I shit you not. It looked like they were made of milk. And it cant be fixed unless the top layer of metal is machined off. Somehow changes the composition of the metal itself.

[Morella]

Does it have a bunch of valves and shit in it? If not, I would just replace it.

American Airlines had a special wax that they would use to keep that mirror finish, but I have no idea what it was called.

-denise