Polishing an aluminum canoe

abbeysdad

New member
We inherited a 17' Grumman's aluminum canoe from my wife's grandfather's estate many, many years ago. It's gotta be about 50 years old (we've had it for 35, wife paddled around in it when she was a kid). It's anodized and and overall dingy from age. On top of that, it sat in a boathouse in the water for many years before we got it. I cleaned up the algae (scrubbung) from the bottom/water line when we first took it out of the water all those years ago, but the bottom remained stained.

I'm thinking of polishing it but am looking for a good procedure. I googled and got a few hits.

One I read began with using oven cleaner, steel wool, then polish (rotary/wool).

Another suggested a Draino/water mix, steel wool, sanding (600+ grit) then polishing.



Can anybody point me to a good procedure for restoring this aluminum canoe?

Can this be done using a PC, or is this really rotary territory?
 
Thanks for the link - he did an awesome job, but my before is much worse than his - his was very dull but didn't look anodized. I think I'd need an acid wash or something before polishing.
 
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