How to clean and polish an aluminium bull bar

With a lot of work. LOL.

Cheapest way out is a cake of soap, a Curly Girl(steel scourer) and warm water. Then add elbow grease and you're away.

Extra cut car polish and a rag work well, a bit more gentle than a pot scourer.

Keith, an aluminium bull bar is a misnomer. They are for splattering insects and birds.

Oh, I forgot, and polishing.............. Finest grade emery you could get grade 600, it does depend on how much it has weathered or pitted. Perhaps the finest grade steel wool, then if you want a fine grinding paste, Wliiem's suggested toothpaste from a post on windsreens yesterday. I believe jewellers rouge comes in several grades if you really want a fine polish and a buffing wheel of course.

Keith,
I use phosphoric acid which can be bought from paint shops. It brings aluminium up a brilliant silver white. After that I polish the bar with a wax polish which results in a surface pretty close to the original. The acid only removes any oxidised or organic materials.
I would't go near polished aluminium with an abrasive myself.
Paul

i agree with pauley
any abrasive such a steel wool even the finest grade or emery paper will scratch the alloy

car polish or rouge, silvo etc are okay but it requires elbow grease.....

After a while you'll learn to live with it as it is!!!..as most of us do

Mothers or eagle brand mag wheel polish is the go, it's designed for alloy and is heaps less abrasive than polishes so you dont get scratches.

if it is pitted the only way to go is wet and dry used wet,the grade depending on the condition of the bar.....1200 down ...then an electric buffer with a lambs wool pad and autosol polish. then use toothpaste to remove any black that is left .then polish with autosol liquid polish for a mirror finish. this is the procedure used on truck bullbars etc. and is the only way to get that new finnish back to your bar.
i used 3 grades of wet and dry but diddn't change grades untill i was happy there were no deeper scratches than the grade i was using.......a lot of work but the bar is almost 7 years old and looks like new........
alan