Aluminium Bullbars

G'day Kazza055,

Have a look at post ID 22040... A variety of suggestions there, take your pick...

For the deep scratch, I'd suggest wet'n'dry sandpaper (wet) in progressively finer grits, down to (at least) 1200g, then apply your choice of clean/polish....

Regards,
Ed. C.

I polished my bullbar - once! Looked great for about a month.

Too much hard work. Now it just has a dull look about it. Is there for function not looks. Not being lazy - just have better things to do than polish aluminium. If it ever needs replacing I will go for a powdercoated steel one.

For the record I used "Reflections Metal Polish". Worked good at time with lots of elbow grease but soon dulls after hitting muddy water.

Cheers
Muddy

Me too. My previous forby had the big ally bull bar, side rails and steps and yep, I polished it once!

I didn't even consider polishing it while it was for sale, I left that for the new owner.

a softish brillo pad for corrosion then a wet thinners rag to shine.

Yep not woth the effort. I did it ONCE too.

I used Brasso on my 4 runner bullbar, came up a treat... but hard work!

Depends on the texture of clothing that the target pedestrians are wearing at the time....

Are aluminium bull bars meant to be shiny?
I know they did a factory polish when I got it, because I was working there at the time.
They used a buffer and polish.
I would have remove the mesh and lights to do it again.
That's a lot of work.
So why did I get aluminium in the first place?
I remember, for the low maintenance!

Why bother?

One thing I stopped doing when a accepted it, was that you stop getting anal about the asthethics of my 4WD as that was part having tbat tyep of vehicle and going off road.

Once you get a few thousand locust stuck to it you stop worrying.

I clean the bug splats off, but I consider the red NT mud stains a right of passage.

I reckon all the replies are pretty well "on the money". I saw some ali bars at the WA Truck Show earlier this year that looked so shiny I thought they had been chrome plated. When I asked how they get them so shiny I was told about a product called Metal-Quip and given a number of the bar fabricator. When I rang them they said they use a whole lot of different grade pastes to get to the final finish including using sheep skin buffs etc and that it was a very time consuming and dirty job. Black stuff everywhere. They said all the bar parts are polished before it is assembled then the welds are just polished afterwards. The guy the suggested any good ali polish will do the job but stressed it must contain an anti-oxident. He said brands such as Wenol, Reflections, Purple and Autosol are all the same stuff and are OK to use. I went to my local TJM store and they have their "own" brand (read own label) and the bottle does not state if it contains an anti-oxident. It gives a good finish but I think once it has rained a few times it will still oxidise and won't stay shiny for long. I think the only answer is to give up or keep polishing regularly.

Hi Kazza055

If the deep scratch was a spoil on a bush track use a permanent marker and write on the bull bar what track it was.
BULLBARS are for use not SHOW
Take it off, if it's for the blacktop, and you won't have to clean it
Mag wheels arn't much better in the bush

Bill F

Autosol works well and if you do it every 6 mths or so, it doesn't take long.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I know the answer to this one, when I bought my new GU, Nissan had the free bullbar towbar etc etc. so instead of letting them fit it all I made them just supply all the extras loose, knowing how much a pain in the #ss alloy bullbars are to keep looking nice, I decided to get it all powder coated (bullbar,towbar, hitch, tow loop) in a hammer tone black & silver finish. that was over two years ago & it never gets cleaned, still looks great & it's even hard to see the bugs #sses all over it. Best $200 odd bucks I ever spent, towbar still hasn't got any rust marks or stone chips on it yet either!!! So get a qoute for the bullbar only might be around $100 odd or polish it up nice & shiney then get a clear powder coated finish over the top.
Cheers.

Thanks folks for the replies - some good advice there but most of them mean hard yakka. I guess it is my fault for not touching it for about a year. Me thinks the trick is to get it clean for a start and then a little spit and polish every few weeks to keep it that way. Like the idea of Mr Sheen - put a little wax on to keep the oxidation away.

Actually, just had a thought (gee that one hurt a bit). I remember back at high school all those years ago, making things in metal work from brass and copper and using a bench grinder with a cloth wheel to buff them up - off to Bumming on the weekend and see if I can get one for the drill.

Bob Cheers