I decided to take Ruby to the car wash today. When I returned home, I noticed that the moisture had clouded the upper trim moulding on the grille, and only that. The cleaners I have used seem to work at first, but when the piece dries off, it is still clouded and tarnished. I know this usually happens with these pieces on these truck grilles. Is there anything I can use that actually works?

 

I usually use chrome polish and a medium brillow pad to remove light rusting on aluminum, or chrome.

 

Would you use chrome polish and a brillo pad on chrome plated plastic?

 

Mine is OEM and aluminium and no I would not attempt to polish chrome plated plastic. Did they ever come plastic?

 

I've never seen one in plastic. I've used Eastwood's polishing kit on both stainless and aluminum will good results.
Stainless Steel Polishing Kit 14 pc Set

 

If it's aluminum, it anodized from the factory. This anodized coating gets old and cloudy.

A long time ago we talked about this, GM used the same anodized on old impalas like I used to have. It was all over the car and did not look good. Those guys would take the trim off, and use easy-off oven cleaner to strip the old cloudy anodized off. You were then left with the raw aluminum, and they polish this out and it looks like chrome again.

But raw aluminum won't last, it needs to be re-polished once in awhile. But that was their only solution besides some expensive polishes that would keep the aluminum from oxidizing, like zoops polish.

The guys that are using rubbing compound, over time they are doing the same thing, or if they rub hard enough, they are quickly doing the same thing. The compound eventually rubs through the factory anodized and you are left with the raw aluminum to maintain. But it looks better than the cloudy anodized coating.

 

How does one maintain the factory original anodized coating?

I have an NOS upper (and lower) grille assembly and an NOS tailgate reflector on my truck right now that I installed a few months ago. I want to take care of these parts!

 

Mine was fine until I took it through this car wash. The truck was well taken care of and all the chrome/aluminum pieces never were oxidized and looked great. Then after 2 trips through this car wash, I guess the excessive moisture or steam got to it and the aluminum plate on the tailgate. I just can't imagine why so quickly and severely, and ever since then they've been clouded and look terrible.

 

Regular soap and water, and a wax would probably not hurt. If it's outside a lot its going to fail eventually.

Possibly the the truck that was damaged at the car wash was already raw aluminum, and the strong detergents etched the polish off the aluminum. See if polishing it with something you would use on wheels or a strong wax made for oxidized paint shines it back up.

What I like to use is this stuff called "Blue Magic". Here's a link.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Blue-Magi...olish/37327089

Besides polishing metal, it works great on cloudy plastic headlights, and you would not believe how it restores the clear plastic on instrument clusters. It's great stuff.

 

Aside the normal weekly wash and wax with carnuba butter wax , there is not much out there for protection of anodized aluminum trim. My solution was to polish it down to pure aluminum, then clear coat it.

 

Well, I use Blue Magic to polish the chrome on the truck already and have tried it. Also have tried Hot Rims aluminum wheel cleaner. Both seem to work at first but then the products dry the aluminum goes right back to being tarnished. I wonder if a good cleaner wax and some White Diamond polish would work?

 

Pick a little spot somewhere and really get aggressive with it. Use the most aggressive compound you have. Then see if it polishes out. If it does, you still have the anodized on there and you need to get it off.

 

I have an aluminum travel trailer, and I tried a bunch of different polishes and products to shine it up. I think the one I liked the best was Mothers Aluminum Polish. If you need abrasives try 00 or 000 steel wool, then the Mothers.

 

This happened to me last year. I usually wash my truck on my own at the house but one day I was in a hurry and I went to one of those 3 dollars car washes and went I got home the paint and every thing was oxidized paint and trim. I even lost a f150 emblem it was the worst. I was panicking. I went back and told them what there car wash did and they didn't seem to care I asked if they could look for my emblem and they just did a quick look came back out with a attitude and told nope sorry couldn't find it. I'll never trust those places again. My brother in law told me they use degreaser in there soaps.

I had to buff the whole truck and even then it didn't help much. I'm gonna have to do a real detail to the truck to get it looking back it proper self.

 

Those cheap car washes also use hot water, which strips off wax.

When the wax protection is gone, your vehicle will look bad sooner, and most people will go back to the car wash sooner. Get it?