Aluminium Cleaner

Neil W

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As per title can anyone recommend a decent cleaner for bare aluminium , when the bike was on the ferry it was parked under a large extractor fan that overnight spewed a load of grease, oil, salt and other shit over it.
Most has cleaned off but the brand new Givi Trekker Outback is very badly marked where the crap etched into the alloy as are the pannier lids to a slightly lesser extend.
Will be speaking to P&O on the return trip but not very happy, was thinking along the lines of products used to clean aluminium on aircraft outer skins, airstream caravans etc.
Any recommendations ?

P.S. if you are on the Hull to Zeebrugge Pride of York ferry and they try to put your bike at the front of the ship on the starboard side under the fans tell them to F.R.O
 
As per title can anyone recommend a decent cleaner for bare aluminium , when the bike was on the ferry it was parked under a large extractor fan that overnight spewed a load of grease, oil, salt and other shit over it.
Most has cleaned off but the brand new Givi Trekker Outback is very badly marked where the crap etched into the alloy as are the pannier lids to a slightly lesser extend.
Will be speaking to P&O on the return trip but not very happy, was thinking along the lines of products used to clean aluminium on aircraft outer skins, airstream caravans etc.
Any recommendations ?

P.S. if you are on the Hull to Zeebrugge Pride of York ferry and they try to put your bike at the front of the ship on the starboard side under the fans tell them to F.R.O

Bloody hell, that’s the last thing I’d expect to happen on a ferry. I use autosol for light metal polishing.
 
Bloody hell, that’s the last thing I’d expect to happen on a ferry. I use autosol for light metal polishing.

Autolsol for me too

Although if the lacquer has lifted it will discolour / oxidise again
 
Whole bike was covered, myself and the Blackbird rider next to me had to use a roll of blue paper to even wipe the shite off the tyres as well as the screen , clocks, mirrors , tank etc.
Just spent two hours today cleaning the bloke in the hotel car park in Austria and there was even grease and oil under the seat where it had run down
 
Whole bike was covered, myself and the Blackbird rider next to me had to use a roll of blue paper to even wipe the shite off the tyres as well as the screen , clocks, mirrors , tank etc.
Just spent two hours today cleaning the bloke in the hotel car park in Austria and there was even grease and oil under the seat where it had run down

I would be dismayed and very angry, what did P&O say?

I know exactly where you parked, in the bow and luckily I have never been parked by the sides of the ship, when parked there
 
Just got to love auto correct on a tablet
 

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Photos are coming out like Giles's finest
 

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Autosol is good. If you need something stronger, try Raceglaze Alutech. Start with the Autosol first, then move up to the Alutech if necessary. It will take a lot of elbow grease. If you know someone with a dual-action polisher, that will make the job quicker. (And I mean a proper DA polisher, not those yokes that Halfords etc sell for buffing)
 
Autosol IS good but I wouldn't use it on ally panniers unless I wanted a polished finish.

If you're going to use it on the panniers you'll have to do the entire surface area (which will be a ball ache) as it will end up looking shiny and polished and nothing like the original surface finish.

TBH I'd be tempted to leave it and put it down to 'shit happens' OR if you want to sort it (which is fair enough) put a claim in to P&O?

Andres
 
I will take issue with P&O more about putting bikes there in the first place FFS we pay enough for the ferries and they sure as f#ck wouldn't stick someones brand new car or camper van under a large fan that spews out such crap
 
I always wonder about this as most ferry bike parking is usually under some kind of pipework (also many underground hotel parking). I would be very unhappy to come back to a ruptured overhead sewage pipe :( I would tell them to pay for it.
 
Well spoke to customer services who initially said that crew mustn't have been aware of issues despite the fact that SOMEONE had left a large roll of industrial blue paper on top of the bike next to mine.

Then asked why I had not collared deck staff and reported the incident ...........impossible during disembarkation plus non of the deck crew came next to us.

Anyway will be sending off an e mail to customer services .

When cleaning the bike the greasy salty shite and was even under the seats and under the tank, it took 3 hours to clean most of it off in Austria and another couple of hours once home.

As for the top box it took over 2 hours to clean up the pitting and corrosion using cutting compound following by autosol then a decent polish and it looks reasonable.

It would never be acceptable if a car ended up covered in crap like this and it would have been much worse on any bike with acres of chrome or polished aluminium
 
All bike bare aluminium is lacquered.
Autosol does not polish lacquer.
It will go all black and patchy leaving no option but to strip all the lacquer off, re-polish and re-lacquer.
Clean the bike with good old fashioned WD40.
 
All bike bare aluminium is lacquered.
Autosol does not polish lacquer.
It will go all black and patchy leaving no option but to strip all the lacquer off, re-polish and re-lacquer.
Clean the bike with good old fashioned WD40.

Givi luggage and bmw luggage is definitely not lacquered
 
HD have bare aluminium wheels on some models and i ‘burnt’ some once usng SDOC 100 gel cleaner. A detailer on another forum suggested 00grade wire wool used with autosol to remove the marking. Belgom Alu to protect after..certainly worked on my wheels at the time
 
Hope you get some success with P&O complaint, certainly should do.

Just tried the Autosol on my BMW top box, works great, looking good.
 
If they scratched the paintwork would you be repairing that yourself too? I'd go down the route of claiming against the ferry insurers to have that mess professionally rectified by whatever is the best method. Probably worth dis using with your own insurers too ASAP to see if they can pursue the claim against ferry.
 


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