aluminium spar cleaning

[Guest]

Anybody has experience with removing stains for aluminium masts? Are aluminium spars coated in some way to prevent oxide formation? I have some black and grey stains, and i wonder if i can sand them, and if i have to apply som paint/varnish?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Ali spars are anodised to prevent them becoming a small heap of aliminium oxide. Sanding to remove marks would destroy the anodising and eventually the mast. Try removing the marks using a rubbing compound like t-cut. After that try polising the mast with a wax polish. Or Blakes do a product called (I think) Mast Oil. Rubbed on, and buffed, this does a reasonable job of rejuvenating the look of alloy spars.

 

[Chris_Robb]

I used a stainless steel polish, which is mildy abraisive, but also incorporates a wax polish. This was applied with a warnout green kitchen scrubber. This worked very well, without requiring a lot of elbow grease.

 

[ronniewood]

Agree that Blakes oil is good. Best I've found so far - you can see the difference.