The Polished Bare Aluminum Rover Tips and Help Thread

[Whiterabbit]

If ya' want a lot of info on polishing aluminum body panels check out the Airstream Trailer websites. Great info and how to.

[ocsddep]

I love it. Given the condition of the paint on my truck, I may be using your advice.

[Alaskan Rover]

I've added a video of the polished Series IIA on YouTube, that shows various aspects of the polished Birmabright perhaps better than the original still pictures. I took this video about three weeks ago, after having the Birmabright sit out in the weather for nearly a month in salty coastal air. I guess I'm STILL doing surfacing testing of the aluminum...just to see if it needs continual polishing.

Now nearly two months out from the initial polishing and being mostly kept outdoors, and little more than just a once a week wipe down with a towel, the alloy still looks very bright and shiny with not much dulling at all. Rain DOES leave slight watermarks, but it does the same thing on paint as well. That's why I wipe it down once a week or so.

While I AM thinking of seeing how a coat of Maguire's wax would look, so far all it ever seems to need is a periodic wipe-down.

Here's the link. I've noticed there is also a vid of an extremely highly polished Series rover that Land Rover actually put together for the 50th Anniversery of Land Rover on YouTube as well...but that one is a little TOO highly polished for me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyeV6A-licM

And here, BTW, is the link to that other factory-polished Land Rover that I was talking about above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=zWYJL4ROV9E&NR=1

[stomper]

As a person who has really gotten into automotive detailing, I would stay away from the wax. the bare aluminum will have a slightly porous texture, and the white wax with leave a reside that will be a pain to remove. try a small test area if you dare.

If it were me, I would apply a coat of rainx. there is no paint, so you don't have to worry about incompatability, and because it is a clear silicone, it will leave no residue to mar the looks. It ought to bead nicely for about 3 weeks or more.

[stomper]

just a thought, but I think it would look awesome if you polished out the rest of the roof, and then had a big Union Jack flag adhered to it!

[SafeAirOne]

Hmm. I'm curious if you've driven it like this when the sun is at lower angles in the sky, especially up there where that could mean a few months straight. I imagine the glare off the bonnet and wings would get rather fatiguing after a while and affect your ability to see stuff.

That's why many larger/multi-engine aircraft have flat black paint on the otherwise-bright, shiny bits ahead and abeam the cockpit.

Of course, I always think in terms of a rover being a daily-driver, so that may not be an issue...

[Alaskan Rover]

Hmm. I'm curious if you've driven it like this when the sun is at lower angles in the sky, especially up there where that could mean a few months straight. I imagine the glare off the bonnet and wings would get rather fatiguing after a while and affect your ability to see stuff.

That's why many larger/multi-engine aircraft have flat black paint on the otherwise-bright, shiny bits ahead and abeam the cockpit.

Of course, I always think in terms of a rover being a daily-driver, so that may not be an issue...

Indeed it is a daily driver, and has been thus for 25 years.

As to glare from the polished aluminum, I've actually had the paint off the hood for 6 years, and in that time I've never once gotten glare from the hood that's affected my sight. I think, perchance, that it is the angle of the hood that may make the difference. True that I haven't had the paint off the top of the front fenders during that same time, but I've driven it quite a bit in all different angles of the sun, including directly into a sunset and a sunrise, and it STILL does not cause a glare issue.

Thanks, Stomper, for that great hint about using Rain-X instead of wax !! I think I will try that immediately.

It's been about two months since I've "de-painted" the rover...and it still remains shiny. The only thing I need to periodically do is wipe it down maybe once a week with a towel to remove the watermarks left by rain drops and morning dew. I'll try that rain-x on it, hopefully no more watermarks !!!

As to oxidation issues that you bring up concerning salty air....as I've stated, six years ago I Initiated a sort of a "Birmabright" test...by taking the paint off the hood (a horizontal surface) and the rear door (a vertical surface), and polished both and then left them untreated to be driven in the elements ( including a lot salty air, as I am ALWAYS within a mile or so of the coast). That 6 year test showed no topical aluminum oxidation, even with the addition of salt-air. For what it's worth, I don't believe the Navy airframes were made from that same specific aluminum, magnesium and manganese alloy....as I've stated, I'm no metallurgist, but I posit that the addition of manganese to the alloy may indeed combat oxidation when salt is a catalyst. I do think, perhaps even by happenstance, the metallurgists at Birmabright, Ltd hit upon just an astounding combination of anti-oxidation properties. I wouldn't have taken the paint off the rest of the rover if those 6 year tests I performed weren't successful.

[SafeAirOne]

As to glare from the polished aluminum, I've actually had the paint off the hood for 6 years, and in that time I've never once gotten glare from the hood that's affected my sight.

Doh!...I just read your previous post where you discussed this. I must have missed it earlier.

Your paintless rover looks pretty nice--I like it.

[keydefender]

Very cool!

Now, I have no wish to hi-jack this thread, but I have a quick story to tell, some advice to offer, and many questions to ask....

We do not own an earlier Land Rover, however, we do own an Oxford Blue 1998 Range Rover 4.6 HSE which we LOVE!

Couple of years back we(Girlfriend and I) bought this...
A 1984 Airstream Classic 345 Motorhome...




Which currently looks like this...



So, we have a little polishing experience and knowledge...
Now I know you maybe dont want a super mirror finish, but WhiteRabbit is correct.... Airforums is where the knowledge is, even if you just was a medium level polish, which is what we want...
Lots of great info on polish, wax protection, etc.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/

The tool you need for a swirl and scratch free finish is a Cyclo Polisher...
This is mine..



We use a polish called Nuvite... it comes in various grades..

Now comes my questions...
We have been trying to figure out what we could buy(when we have saved up) to flat tow behind our Motorhome
We narrowed the search down to a smallish 4x4 in the 3000 to 4000lb weight band.

Then I had a brain storm because I remembered that Land Rovers were built from Aluminium... lol, I mean Aluminum!
So I Googled...
And found first this picture, and then this thread...


So, can someone tell me what the above model and year it approx is?

Then I saw this...

[Andrew IIA]

Nice airstream. The Rover looks pretty cool, but I think any blemishes would be greatly magnified by the polished surface. Anyway, my guess is that its a '97 D90 (late style door handles and roll up windows - the horror !). Lots of folks here will know better than me. Thanks for sharing.

[o2batsea]

Gak!
Must go wash eyes

[DanBaileyTribe]

LOVE your polished Series Rover and am very interested in trying this with our Defender 110. Do you know if the process would be about the same for Defenders as for Series?

The 110 is a 1988 was imported from UK recently and while it has an expensive looking, very beautiful gunmetal grey paint job, whoever painted it failed to prep it properly and there are strange bubbles and lumps under the paint so I'm kinda afraid to know what's under there if we decided to strip her. You said that any dings are actually less noticeable when bare, and I believe it since you don't really notice the dings in Airstreams because of the beauty of the polished aluminum. Will take a pic of the funky paint lumps, mostly on the rear side panels under the windows.

We have a 1959 Airstream and to have a matching polished pair would be incredible!

She looks gorgeous at a distance but up close you can see the paint job is kinda funky.
defender side.pdf

[S11A]

Dan, I would guess the 110 would be very similar.

For the steel bits such as the bulkhead I would recommend this:

http://www.amazon.com/VHT-SP5251-Finish-Chrome-Plus-11/dp/B000CPJLQM

It isn't really chrome like but is pretty close to a polished aluminum. Actually it is about as close to chrome as I have seen a spray paint but still... Like McLaren F1 silver so not too bad just chrome.

[DanBaileyTribe]

Dan, I would guess the 110 would be very similar.

For the steel bits such as the bulkhead

Which other parts are steel vs. aluminum?

[Dibsen]

Very cool polished rover! Got to admit, you got me thinking. haha

I hand painted mine a few years back when I first bought it because it was 4 different colors, plus the seller included a couple cans of rover paint.

Do you drive your rover in the bush? Here in Florida, I some times find myself trail blazing and my rough paint job has all the "pin stripping" to prove it. I was wondering how the bare alloy would stand up to that kind of harsh use.