Bearwhiz

Can anyone tell me how to put the shine back into an aluminum tool box. It was an expensive box and I hate to get rid of it. I want to make it look new again.

Zeus1987

wax and then buff with a wheel , for smaller aluminum things i have used silver polish.

hinieho

do a lot of rubbing i done this to my running bords

glocklove

Try Flitz you can get an attachment for your drill and the stuff works pretty good, you can get it at wally world or TSC any place like that should carry it..

Kenny D

you can get a 6 or 8 inch polishing wheel from home depot and the real light polishing roush i run it on my 4 inch electric angle grider and it makes fast fast work of it and then a hand polish after it lookes grrat i do it all the time but that high speed of a grinder will sling some roush on the truck and you

high bid

The above polishing provides the best results but not 100% as the polish builds up in the raised diamonds on the plate. You can also try "alumabrite" (I think that's the spelling) which can be sprayed on, let soak and then wash off. It too cleans it all pretty well but not like new. I had a bed lined w/it in a Jeep truck and when new, it was awesome.

dodgezilla04

my alum box has black pits in it from soot. i cannot manage to remove them. any tips for this?

Kenny D

alumiprep or any light acid etch (for aluminum) is great for the inicial cleaning then polish. also i found that a good dish soap will get the polish out from around the dioamonds then polish by hand

SoTexRattler

Be careful with acid based aluminum brightener/cleaners. Many contain dilute HydroFluoric acid (etches glass) plus some phosphoric acid. DO NOT get it on your skin or your eyes. Causes painful delayed burns on skin.
Spray it on, it foams up like fine shaving cream bubbles.. Wash it off after a few mins. May leave a black film but that wipes right off.
It won't "polish" it but will sure take off the grey stains from weathering.

The Hydrofluoric etches the stained aluminum oxide layer off.