Aluminum Car Trailers

Trailers are rarley ever made up of 100% aluminum. There generally are some steel components and parts such as couplers and axles. A Trailer is generally considered aluminum when the frame and floor are aluminum. Most steel framed trailers utilize wood floor systems and an aluminum exterior. The advantage of aluminum trailers are a lighter weight and more weather resistant. This makes aluminum trailers cheaper to operate and last longer. An additional benefit is that aluminum trailers will have a higher resale value later in its life than a steel frame trailer due to its durability. These trailers are offered in open and enclosed. Featherlite and Pace offer aluminum car trailers. You can find many of our Featherlite and Pace trailers on our inventory for Open Car Trailers For Sale and Enclosed Car Trailers For Sale.

Polish Your Aluminum Car Trailer

Step 1: Clean all the dirt and debris from the exterior using soap and water.

Step 2: Mask or remove any painted surfaces, lights, plastic pieces or any other items from the exterior of the trailer that may be damaged by the following steps.

Step 3: Remove the old clear coat finish (if your trailer has a clear coat finish) with a paint stripper. Follow instructions on the paint stripper can.

Step 4: Wash the trailer again to remove any residual chemicals.

Step 5: Remove any heavy oxidation with 600 grit wet sand paper. Sand the rough areas with the 600 grit paper rinsing with soapy water as you go.

Step 6: "Compound" the trailer using a wool bonnet on a 7" angle grinder. Use a relatively coarse grit Nuvite polishing compound for this step. (This will give your trailer a pretty good shine, but will leave swirl marks).

Step 7: Start on the top of your trailer and work your way down.

Step 8: "Medium Polish" the trailer using a less coarse grade of Rolite polish using a new wool bonnet on the angle grinder. (This will give you a much better polish but will still leave swirl marks).

Step 9: "Fine Polish" the trailer using a dual head random orbital polishing machine wrapped with sweatshirt material using a fine grade of Rolite polish. (This will remove swirls and provide an almost mirror-like finish.)

Tips

• Cleanliness is the key to getting a fine polish. Dirt, sand or other debris in on your polishing pads or on the trailer will leave scratches in the surface. Clean the wool bonnets and change to clean sweatshirt material often.
• There are tons of different polishing materials out there. Test the various brands to find what suits you best. Nuvite is used by aircraft companies to get the shine on their airplanes.
• This is a big job and takes lots of time and physical stamina
• Polish your trailer in cool weather in the shade if possible.
• Some folks believe that only an "alclad" finished aluminum trailer can be polished. Not true. All aluminum can be polished.
• Some advise not to use sand paper of any type on the aluminum. 600 grit or finer can be used to speed the process and the scratches from this grade or finder sand paper can be polished out.
• Aluminum has a "grain" kind of like wood, and to leave it "mirror like" it is good to finish it off by hand by going with the grain.