cmonkey713

Sorry I didn't take any before pics, my oversight. It was not in real bad shape. The main problem was that everything seemed to to be discolored and tarnished. Just typical road grit and such but not too bad since the car is not a daily driver. I can say the difference is like night and day. If someone really wanted to go whole hog the suspension could be disassembled and polished on a buffing wheel and then reassembled. This route is even a little much for me.

GARB55

I picked a bottle of Aluminum Brightener up from Napa Auto Parts, #1458. As stated before use gloves. I sprayed on cautiously and scrubbed gently. Mine is very dirty as she has been a Daily Driver for 7 years. It took a bit longer than expected. I'm impressed with the results as I only had 3 hours. It will Require doing again but again very satisfied.

cmonkey713

Looks great. I know how much time this takes but in the end it is worth it.

GARB55

Yes it is, thanks for sharing.

DaBum

Haven't been on the forum for quite a while but just traded my 2008 coupe for a 2007 LMB Z06 with 9K miles on the clock. The low mileage leads me to believe that the car sat up for most of the time and as a result my undercarriage aluminum and engine bay parts look really tarnished. The Napa product mentioned sounds like a great product and simple to use but I have a few questions. Did you have to take extra care or mask off any rubber or plastic parts to make sure the product didn't get on them or will it not affect them? Has anyone tried using this on any of your alluminum engine parts? Not sure how I'm going to get this beast in the air long enough to do the amount of detail that it needs but I'll figure it out. Will this also work on your stock mufflers, mine look like they have never been washed! I might be better off painting them. Thanks in advance and it's good to be back.

JVM225

I'll have to keep that in mind. I'm a fan of Woody Wax and use it on the non skid deck surfaces on my boat. It's pricey, but a little goes a long way.

cmonkey713

When I did mine I covered the composite springs with aluminum foil and taped it down just to make sure no chemical damage would be done. Aluminum Brite does not seem to have any adverse effect on the rubber parts. I use it on the oil pan frequently because of the oil sepage issue with some of the LS-2 & 3 oil pans. Remember to get a spray bottle of clear water to throughly rinse the chemical off. don't forget the rubber gloves and eye protection too. Be careful with this stuff, it will burn your skin. Use an air hose to dry.

As for the mufflers, just try it and see how it does. Good luck with the clean-up.

DaBum

JVM, this stuff looks pretty interesting. I especially like the fact that you can apply it to fuse boxes, plastic, etc. Sounds pretty simple on/off and protect. I might have to give this a whirl. Have you tried it on any oxidized aluminum?

JVM225

No, I only use it on the non skid areas of the deck. It woks great on those areas and is super easy to apply.

91monsta

fine steel woll



on last pic i ised tripoli wheel wax an acually polished crome the lower bars

91monsta

http://www.stevenemichael.com/57Corvettepage8.html MUST SEE IF INTERESTED IN POLISHED SUSPENSION

FNBADAZ06

cool

cmonkey713

It took me a couple of hundred hours to get it this way.

Zap City

Wow, that is beautiful work. Love to do the same but I know what a total PITA polishing like that is. I've got a bottle of the NAPA brightener. I'm gonna pull my wheels when I get some free time and clean up my control arms.

cmonkey713

If I had known what I was getting into I would have never started. Each square inch of the aluminum was touched 12 times to get it right. Grind smooth 40 and 80 grit flap diske on an angle grinder and then use an air orbital sander with 320, 500, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 and 3000 grit sanding disks. Then hit the buffing wheel with brown and white polishing compound on three diffrent buffer wheels. Final polish with Mothers Billet Polish and seal with Rejex. Put it all back together and have it lined up. About 200 hours. Never again.

no cigar

Hi guys I'm stumbling onto this thread for the first time and looking like I might try this product on the cradle/oil pan on my Z06. I believe the S100 cleaner that I used on my engine bay collected on those components and turned them almost brown with oxide. Do you think the NAPA aluminum bright would work on those?

cmonkey713

Cigar, remember to protect the composition spring from the Aluminum Brightner. The springs will delaminate if the AM makes substantial contact, Have personal knowledge of delimitation and spring failure.

Turbo6TA

Yup ... I have heard that too.