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Old 02-10-2016, 06:10 PM   #1
jpatchley
 
Status: Junior Member
Join Date: Jul 2015
Posts: 8
Default Restoring Aluminum Coastline Trailer

Hey everyone,

I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been working on cleaning up my trailer/restoring its lost luster. I've purchased Mike P's book and put the knowledge in it to use.

First off, some before pictures.

The full boat



Close ups of trailer











First off, I had to look up what type of metal Coastline trailers were. I looked at the manufacturers website and saw that they are aluminum. Knowing this, I headed over to Mike P's book to page 93. I placed the trailer in Category 3.

Aluminum in category 3 has 4 steps:

1. Wash and rinse off loose surface dirt.
2. Remove oxidation, water spots, and stains.
3. Re-polish to remove any holograms or buffer trails.
4. Seal the polished aluminum.


Step 1 was easy enough, and done when I thoroughly washed the boat. Step 2. For this step I used the Flex 3401 paired with a purple wool pad and Mothers California Gold Metal Polish.




Also, don't forget to bring plenty of throwaway microfiber towels. Removing the spent polish is much easier with clean towels. I found that polishing the trailer twice with 6 passes seemed to work best. I never switched to a foam pad as I was pretty happy with the results and didn't really see any buffer trails. Also, don't forget the wool pad spur. It's super important to clean your pad after ever section pass. If not done, the pad seemed to gum up and the correction ability wasn't as great.


After Polishing




After using spur





So far I've only worked on the neck of the trailer. Here are some before and afters.
















I'll update this post as I go around the trailer. I have not done step 4 as I am waiting for my sealer to come in.

One question, I've seem to have lost the bolt on one side of my flex polisher for the handle. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement?


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