I finally mounted my Airtank in a way that I liked, it’s in the build thread.
But I wanted to mention here that I actually finally found a relatively easy product to clean and polish the aluminum diamond plate. It looks like it’s going to work great on the mag wheels as well.
I think the spray cleaner is some kind of mild acid from reading the instructions. It will take off calcium and rust, etc. The toolbox lid looked almost white, except for the dirty spots. I sprayed the stuff on, waited a minute, and then worked it in with a nylon brush. I used some 0000 steel wool on the bad spots The aluminum didn’t look a whole lot better, but I could tell from the black water and muck that a whole bunch of something came off. Then I rinsed it all off and let it dry.
The paste/polish is weird. It’s waxy, but it is light almost like a piece of Styrofoam, but it is a paste. Initially, I was applying it with a shop towel with meager results. Then I put a buffing cone (1.5 x 3?) from Harbor Freight on my 3/8 drill. This let me work around all the diamonds on the diamond plate. I was flat out astounded at how quickly it brought the diamond plate to a pretty good shine! That toolbox lid piece is about 14“ x 20 1/2“, with the turn down edge, and flat ends, and I did the whole thing in about 10 minutes.
This before/after picture doesn’t do it justice.
Keep in mind I have tried 10 or 12 different kinds of buffing wheels and pads, and all kinds of metal cleaner, and I got good results, but it took hours.
I bought the stuff while ago, it was a little pricey, but it is worth every single nickel if your time is worth $.50 an hour!
