Polishing those aluminum tunnels

Post by **guitardude081** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:01 am

I've seen a lot of posts asking how to polish a bare aluminum tunnel. Most responses seem to be secretive in nature. Here's the trick I use. It takes about 2 hours for a really dirty tunnel because you have to do the process 2 or 3 times. Here goes:
Supplies: 1 roll of blue Scott brand shop towels, 1 terry towel, 1 container of Mothers wadding wax, 1 Container of Mothers Mag Wheel and Aluminum Polish, 2 containers of Elbow Grease.

Step 1: Wash the sled and get all of the loose sand and dirt off of the running boards.
Step 2: Spray area to be polished with contact cleaner (or brake Kleen). Do this until no more of that nasty black stuff rubs off. Then wipe the tunnel completely dry.
Step 3: Rip off a small chunk of wadding wax, roughly a 1 inch ball. Rub in a circular motion all over the area to be polished. Wipe off the wax as best as you can and repeat this step. After repeating, wipe off all excess wax.
NOTE: Wadding wax is basically a giant cotton ball with facial astringent on it. It basically will remove any embedded dirt and grime.
Step 4: Grab a waxing pad and your container of Mag and Aluminum Polish and start rubbing that tunnel in a hard circular motion. The harder you rub the deeper you will polish. Usually after I do one side, I can't bend my fingers for about 10 minutes. wait 1-2 minutes.
Step 5: Wipe off polish with a blue shop towel. The harder you press when you wipe off the polish the more it will shine.
Step 6: Once the polish is wiped off grab a terry towel and wipe the polished area hard with no wax or polish. This almost acts as a pencil eraser. You may see rubbings start to roll out from under the towel. I normally do this to my trail sled once a year, and it holds up well.

If the tunnel was excessively dirty or corroded you may have to repeat. It will look better every time to do this. It will usually maintain the shine for 2 or 3 rides if you wipe it off with contact cleaner after each ride. I usually don't use a buffer on tunnels, It's more work to do it by hand, but in my opinion the end result is always better.
~Jack

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pj sportfire · Post by **pj sportfire** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:09 am

Wow! That looks nice!

tieszo6 · Post by **tieszo6** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:18 am

I use a product called Bad Dog Polish. It's a small private company, you can search for them on the web. So far, everytime I've used it I've been amazed. You can go from bare AL stock to a mirror with minimal effort.

Mark

b00stinGTP · Post by **b00stinGTP** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:05 pm

Very nice sled! I think I will try that out on my 83's tunnel.

JDFanPa · Post by **JDFanPa** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:09 pm

Thats a pretty logical method only thing I do different is on a badly corroded/dirty tunnel is start by rubbing all the areas you can get to with a scotch brite pad.

Post by **WinnipegStPaul9** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:48 am

Andy, recently I tried the Scotch Brite idea. Are there different "harshness" levels to them. I felt that the one I used produced excessive scratches in the tunnel. I did use the brand name "Scotch Brite". DA

ralphy · Post by **ralphy** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:53 pm

wizard brand is also awesome

JDT · Post by **JDT** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 8:52 pm

Do not use the 3M Green pads on Aluminum. Use the white ones.

Post by **WinnipegStPaul9** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:27 pm

Thanks Todd!!! DA

JDT · Post by **JDT** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 9:29 pm

They make a gray one and using it would be the equivelent of draging a tunnel down a gravel road. It even cuts your skin!