Whats a good Aluminum Cleaner

I found a old Eddie Meyer intake and I want to clean it up. I was wondering what the best way to clean it would be. I dont want to media balst it. I rather do somthing that wont knock down the lettering..

 

Was it polished and are you going to polish it? If so, I wouldn't blast it, but otherwise I'd go ahead and use a gl*** media blasting. It won't hurt the letters. I have a gl*** bead cabinet and it's ideal for cleaning aluminum. It has a tough time getting some paint off, it's not too aggressive.

If you are going to polish it, just go ahead and start with the first compound, it'll take all the dirt and crud off. Just clean any big junk with a soft wire brush or steel wool first.

I've seen spray on aluminum cleaners at napa but never tried any.

 

It was never polished. I want to keep it as close to what it was as possible. Just cleaner.. I have a media blaster. I just wanted to keep a it looking older. Somtimes when I blast the old orig aluminum stuff it looks so new. But mabey that will be the best bet for it.

 

I don't have a problem with my parts looking too new! That's the goal, right, to make it as nice as you can?

 

Some what..I dont want the intake to look of the shelf new. I want it to look its age, but clean..

 

Lay on a couple coats of Simple Green, let it soak in, then stick it in the dishwasher when the wife isn't home. It works well.

Also, blasting won't take the lettering off. And if you're planning on polishing that ****er, it's going to take one hell of a lot more than compound to do it. You'll have to start w/ 100 grit paper or so and work up.

 

DON'T use Simple Green; it's caustic to aluminum. You'll get white marks that are a bear to get rid of.

 

I put some pistons in the dish washer once..
Took about three years for the navy gray plastic walls in the washer to turn white again.

Cascade makes them aluminum pot ugly too.

 

First soak in mineral spirits to remove most of the heavy grease and gunk. After drying off, scrub with lacquer thinner to clean the last stains. Scrub with a plastic bristle brush, not metal.

That should remove most of the old gunk and stains but not too much to make it look new.

 

NICE FIND !!!! Man , Dont use anything but some kind of soap ( old style Dish-wash-soap ( pre "Dishwasher-type ) or Engine degreaser / Cleaner .. Any type of media blasting will make that cool piece look newer than it did when new !! They came as-cast / machined ..again : EXCELLENT FIND !!!!

 

I have always used brake cleaner, or carb and choke cleaner, that seems to get the grime off. -Joe

 

Thanks Klazurfer, Im pretty excited. Im working on a Flathead for it right now...

Thanks for all the help guys..

 

If you ready don't want to take a chance on messing it up. Sell it to me.

 

redpunk, walnut shells in a blast cabinet will not change the texture of the aluminum. It will just clean all the crud off. Can be bought from McMaster-Carr, they have a website. Or if you wnt to clean witha chemical, try trisodium phosphate.

 

We use pink stuff or simple green diluted down to 30%
Rinse off real well with tap water.
Never had a problem, but never left it in too long either.
Regular hot water and cheap soap take a lot of beating.
Stay away from evaporative solvents as they take oil in casting and can give it a mottled color.
Plastic or bristle brushes only on aluminum.
Wire wool is not too bad if you don't scrub too hard.

 

An S.O.S. pad works REALLY good on the machined surfaces of really grungy "mag." wheels (like after runing then all winter in Wisconsin). But I don't know how it would work on sand castings. You could try it in an incon****uous spot.