J rails

[franklin1972]

What is everyone doing in terms of cleaning j rails and the old muck off them ,?

50 years of old mastic

[franklin1972]

And are you just cleaning them or polishing the alloy up.

Any tips on cleaning

[nickd15]

I use 800 wet and dry to clean. Any heavy stuff I pick off with a razor blade. Then go over with a metal polish paste and finish off with Purple.

[snoops]

Removing and cleaning them is a PITA job and I have used a variety of items to clean the old mastic off - where it’s still somewhat soft a Stanley knife and scraper and where it’s hard as a rock and old chisel. Lots of elbow grease required at all times unfortunately. I have never gone to the trouble of polishing them but for my window frames I just used steel wool and some cheap car polish - both of which I had lying around so there maybe better ways. 😊

[ian]

I have just finished cleaning the J Rails on our 1978 Viscount Supreme. I used a wire wheel on a drill as they had all been painted previously and I really needed to get in the grooves and remove the paint.

They came up nice and shiny. After that I used small amounts of Purple Polish on them just for added polish and shine.

[Mustang]

May 20, 2020 18:46:47 GMT 10 franklin1972 said:

And are you just cleaning them or polishing the alloy up.

Any tips on cleaning

How to Polish Tarnished Grooved Aluminum Windows 

There's not a product, brush, potion that I haven’t tried to rejuvenate old aluminum, 

I’m yet to find anything that works, better than this method: 

(I’ve removed, polished replaced, over 36 x windows to date) 

Best method I have found for polishing grooved tarnished aluminum: (Non Oxidized) 

1) Course steel wool , (pending condition) sprayed with INOX (pending condition) 

(WD40 is too light & dries out quickly) 

With this first step it is important to remove all lumps of tarnish, 

cavities from heavy tarnish are best left as part of the history. 

2) Medium steel wool (any tarnished condition) 

3) Fine " " " " “ 

Steel Wool is cheap, it wears out, change your pad when it balls up. 

You should have reached a semi shine by the “fine” stage, if not you may have skimped on stages 1 & 2. 

Now the secret is to finish with steel wool 0000 still saturated in INOX. 

Rub like no tomorrow, then de-grease the Inox. 

Next Step 

I have tried Purple de-Oxidizer, Purple Polish, White bull bar shine, most others.... 

I now recommend AUTOSOL, or the USA made NUSHINE 

apply after all of above, cheap & it works, 

However once you achieve a shine, maintenance with 

Purple de-Oxidizer followed by Purple Polish will give you a slightly higher gloss. 

It takes time, you cannot rush it, set small targets. 

PS: Mechanical brushes will give you quick result but, the surface will re-dull quickly.