experiment on cloudy/oxidized aluminum
 

I don't have a garage at the minute or access to electricity, so finding ways to spruce up my cloudy aluminum trim has been tricky. I googled within the forum a lot ("site:peachparts.com") and came across some very old posts by a guest named Yorktown5 about using gun stock oil on the trim.

Yorktown's reasoning was that oil made the aluminum look less cloudy, but most oils disappeared over time. Gun stock oil cures onto surfaces and can be sanded and buffed. I plan to get the car painted in the coming months so I thought, what's the harm in experimenting. Attached are the results of using Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil (it's super cheap).

It looks *much* better than it did with nothing. And the effect seems to compound slightly over time. I haven't taken it through a car wash yet, but I don't really intend to once the paint is done. I'll just wash by hand then.

The first time I messed around with this stuff I put too much on and ended up with drips which had to be sanded down. Meh. It seems to need very thin application, at least in the summertime. YMMV of course.

Purists may not like the idea, and it doesn't get rid of all the cloudiness, but it helps massively, especially on pieces that aren't flat. It's a nice cheap fix as far as I'm concerned.