Zip Dee Awning Cover Polish

[ScottC]

Anybody have any suggestion's for shining up my Zip Dee Awning cover? I picked up a used Zip Dee that I am installing but the cover has what looks like oxidation and does not come off, I washed it, then hit it with an SOS pad, no luck. The only thing I could find online states it is anodized and I need to use oven cleaner to strip it then polish it. Has anybody used oven cleaner with success?

Thanks!

 

[bdub]

I've tried and tried. Still doesn't shine like new. Interested to hear how the oven cleaner works out.

 

[ScottC]

I've tried and tried. Still doesn't shine like new. Interested to hear how the oven cleaner works out.

Good to know, I am worried about using the oven cleaner and end up looking worse.

 

[pvfjr]

Cheap oven cleaner normally has sodium hydroxide in it. An aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide dissolves aluminum readily, and off-gasses quite a bit of hydrogen. I used to drop balls of aluminum foil into the caustic solution when I was a teenager, watch them vanish, and light off the gasses. Pretty dumb, but I'm still here somehow.

Anyway, oven cleaner probably has a safer level of NaOH, but just beware that it will happily eat away. If you try it, test a small area, be prepared to rinse thoroughly, and don't let it sit for too long.

 

[ScottC]

Cheap oven cleaner normally has sodium hydroxide in it. An aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide dissolves aluminum readily, and off-gasses quite a bit of hydrogen. I used to drop balls of aluminum foil into the caustic solution when I was a teenager, watch them vanish, and light off the gasses. Pretty dumb, but I'm still here somehow.

Anyway, oven cleaner probably has a safer level of NaOH, but just beware that it will happily eat away. If you try it, test a small area, be prepared to rinse thoroughly, and don't let it sit for too long.

Paul, thank you so much for the info, that's exactly what I needed to know, I will try a small spot and see what happens, if it is not very effective I am just going to leave it alone and polish what I have the best I can.

 

[ScottC]

Well it works, did a small section, about 15-20 minutes and the anodizing wipes off, will take a lot of polishing. After polishing will have to keep up on the aluminum, not sure if it is worth the trouble but I might go for it.

 

[Eric S.]

Anybody have any suggestion's for shining up my Zip Dee Awning cover? I picked up a used Zip Dee that I am installing but the cover has what looks like oxidation and does not come off, I washed it, then hit it with an SOS pad, no luck. The only thing I could find online states it is anodized and I need to use oven cleaner to strip it then polish it. Has anybody used oven cleaner with success?

Thanks!

Easy-Off oven cleaner (Yellow spray can only) will remove the anodization, slowly. But it is a huge gooey mess to use and you would not want to get even a drop on your awning fabric or GMC paint, as it is incredibly caustic. It is mainly Sodium Hydroxide which is very effective at destroying organic stuff (it is the same chemical used in Drano!). I used it to remove the thick clear anodization from an aluminum BMW car bumper which looked a lot like your awning cover. It took over an hour to get through the anodization, but it got through very unevenly, and the resulting surface was very rough and pitted, requiring a ton of sanding with 220/340/600/1200 sandpaper to get a surface that was polish-able. And once you get it polished, you'll need to re-polish it often, or clearcoat it to prevent it from re-oxidizing. For the huge surface on the Zip-Dee cover, I would not even think about it. (Maybe consider silver spray paint with a clearcoat?)

 

[ScottC]

Easy-Off oven cleaner (Yellow spray can only) will remove the anodization, slowly. But it is a huge gooey mess to use and you would not want to get even a drop on your awning fabric or GMC paint, as it is incredibly caustic. It is mainly Sodium Hydroxide which is very effective at destroying organic stuff (it is the same chemical used in Drano!). I used it to remove the thick clear anodization from an aluminum BMW car bumper which looked a lot like your awning cover. It took over an hour to get through the anodization, but it got through very unevenly, and the resulting surface was very rough and pitted, requiring a ton of sanding with 220/340/600/1200 sandpaper to get a surface that was polish-able. And once you get it polished, you'll need to re-polish it often, or clearcoat it to prevent it from re-oxidizing. For the huge surface on the Zip-Dee cover, I would not even think about it. (Maybe consider silver spray paint with a clearcoat?)

I know what you are saying about the work involved, with my black & white theme I would love to just paint it black but that would also take plenty of sanding prep and I don't think it would be long before it starts scraping paint at the seams. I have so much to do anyway I am almost to the point of saying screw it and putting it up as is. Just doesn't seem the right thing to do being I have it apart now. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Eric S.]

In that case, I'd paint it white and lay it on thick. Any scratch-thru will be aluminum color and probably not visible. Also, white will mask most surface imperfections much better than black. (Just my humble opinion).

 

[Louis]

I recently polished my Zip Dee, and the rest of the GMC, with Meguiar's Mirror Glaze professional Show Car Glaze. It came out pretty good. This GMC had just come out of a 6 year indoor storage in AZ so wasn't horrible but had lived in the PNW before that so wasn't really nice either. I use stainless steel wool on the tough stains, rust and corrosion then get after it with the mirror glaze and a palm polisher I got from Harbor Freight. The show car glaze comes with varying levels of rubbing compound mixed in so you can get what you need. I use it on the whole vehicles, everything. The painted body, the wheels, bumpers, stainless steel, glass, everything.

 

[ScottC]

I am going to try and stay away from painting it, this is not going to be a show rig so I will probably just get it looking decent (polish a turd) and move on. As always thanks for the ideas.