Cleaning The Aluminium Front On My Fiat X250 (1 Viewer)

[rosalan]

The aluminium painted front (nose) of my van, never looked good after using polish. The polish always took off layers of paint but still looked streaky. About a year ago I tried using Beeswax and after a year during which water just 'beads' off it, I have just done it again, because it worked. So I think this is a 'Top tip'
Alan

 

[buckby]

Sounds good I will give that a try I have tried allsorts pure silicone spray works eventually

 

[Judge Mental]

Aluminium...are you sure?

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[rosalan]

Aluminium...are you sure?

Yes I think so.
I have noticed that some Fiats have a top lacquer coat and polish up fine but mine seems to be an aluminium spray finish without a lacquer coat. When I try to polish it the cloth or buffer quickly turns black. I asked my dealer what they used and they said to try a simple wax. At the time I found a tin of Johnsons Wax floor polish (like Mansion polish). It worked a treat but I left the lid off and it went solid. I was amazed to find that I could not buy the old wax floor polish but noticed that 'Salvage Hunters' on TV use wax on most things to finish them off. So I bought some beeswax from a hardware shop (not cheap at around £8) and it worked better than I expected. After many months it is still good but did it again to remove flies etc.

 

[Charlie]

Automotive and household waxes differ emensley

Household waxes are meant to soak into the surface usually wood. It has none of the reflective ingredients Automotive wax has.

Automotive wax I'd designed to put a layer of wax onto the surface of paint. It has reflective ingredients and is designed to reflect sunlight shed water and protect the finish.

Neither are designed to clean. Wax may soften the flies and bugs but you would be better of washing them off with warm water and car shampoo then applying wax. But use automotive wax.

 

[rosalan]

I agree with all you say but so far, all the waxes I have tried have some form of abrasive in them, this I have found takes off too much of the aluminium coat for my liking and still leaves a streaky finish. My latest attempt using beeswax seems to work quiet well although not as good as the old 'Johnsons' floor wax which is no longer available. It is possible that some vans have a gloss coat over the aluminium and will not know what I am complaining about.

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