Question for those that went the bare aluminum panel route.

[Yama-Bro]

Hi Guys.

I'm patiently waiting for my kit and thinking through some of the first steps. I want to do bare aluminum panels. I like the look and I want the car to have a vintage feel to it. My question for those that have done bare panels is; what did you do to the panels before mounting them: leave them as shipped, sand them, use a cleaner to wipe the markings off? If you could post a picture and mention what you did that would be great. I'm just trying to figure out what my plan of attack will be for the aluminum.

Thanks!

[BEAR-AvHistory]

A lot of my panels are sprayed with truck bed liner or covered with insulation the rest are bare. All the panels were cleaned to remove any markings, oils, metal chips etc after I drilled the required holes. Used Toluene, MEK or similar.

[Joecobr]

I like the look of bare aluminum as well. For all panels I used acetone to remove the markings, mounted and drilled them, removed them and sanded them in one direction with 1000 grit, and finally applied Shark's Hide. The panels look very nice with this technique. Can't comment on durability just yet but have read that it is good.

Sorry the photo upload failed.

Cheers,

Joe

[Straversi]

I hand sanded my panels with 220 grit and a sanding block. I used a guid board to get the scratches straight. Then clear coated. I used AlumaClear. Others use Sharkhyde with good results.

I had planed leave them natural but found they had too many scratches ( mostly from my own mishandling).
I tested several different methods on the bottom of trunk panels until I got what I liked. There are only a few panels that show. I drilled all of my panels before I sanded them.

I just cleaned and sprayed the exposed panels that are not visible.

Sorry, can't attach a photo to is reply for some reason. I have a few photos in my build thread. Steve's MKIV Coyote Build.
-Steve

[scottiec]

Mine are bare (still assembling) and I just use brake cleaner to clean them before I mount them. I will probably go over them with acetone to get off anything I missed or that was stubborn.

[steno]

I started with bare panels, but after 10 years of wiping down and cleaning with a bit of Mothers polish I now have polished panels! I hit them once or twice lightly a season, and they look great! All by hand.

[DaveS53]

If you want a brushed finish look, it takes several steps of sanding to remove a thin, darker layer at the surface. This is usually done with 120 grit. Watch the slightly darker color disappear after enough sanding. Switch to 220 grit before all of darker layer is removed. After the 220 grit, sand with 400 for awhile, then switch to maroon colored scotch brite for the final finish.

If you do nothing to the factory finish you'll probably have some scratches from working with the metal and there is no way to remove them that won't look different than the rest of the panel. With the brushed finish, it can be touched up with scotch brite, or some 400 grit, then scotch brite.

All of the interior panels on the inside of my car and the trunk have this type of finish on the 3003 alloy aluminum.

[MPTech]

I only did the exposed panels in the engine bay. I used truck-bed liner on the inner fenders.
I temporarily installed all of my panels with sheet-metal screws and drove in gel-coat 1 summer (highly recommend this).
While the body was off being painted, I removed all of the panels and prepped them for finishing.
I used lacquer thinner to remove all of the markings.
Then i use a series off sanding discs on a random orbital sander to prepare the surface for final finish and coating.
Starting with 200 and going to 800 grit. (you can buy boxes of 50 of the velcro-style on Amazon, relatively cheap and very easy to use!)
After the surface imperfections were removed, I cleaned them again with lacquer thinner to remove all of the sanding dust.
Then I carefully used green Scotch-brite pads in straight strokes, in one direction, for a machined finish. Do not go back&forth, it will give bad stroke marks.
Then I applied 1 coat of Shark-hide. (I tried to apply a second coat, but couldn't get this to work without it attacking the first coat).
On the panels that I coated the opposite side with truck bed liner, I carefully taped and masked the Shark-hide side after allowing 2 days to dry. Make sure to tape all drill holes and curt-outs, the spray-on truck-bed liner will over-spray them easily.
I'm very happy with the results and have received compliments on the finish.
Cleanup is VERY easy with a Quick-Detail spray and they look new again. (raw aluminum will kind of turn white/gray and dull over time, also scratch more easily).

[RoadRacer]

I'll just be wiping off the sharpie markings off and riveting to the car. No finish or sanding.

[Mike N]

My build was on the road in 2002 and I still have the panels bare. You will never keep the panels perfect but they will look pretty good if you use something like Luster Seal at the start of each driving season. For the underside of the car I use Shark Hide to keep the oxidation in check.

[Gumball]

All of my aluminum panels are raw. I cleaned them with acetone to get the ink markings off, that's it. Every so often, I wipe down the visible panels - really just a few in the engine compartment - with an old rag that has WD-40 on it and they all still look as nice as the day I installed them. The wheel wells and other areas have been left to gather patina.

[Hotyacht]

I have used Eastwood ExoArmour - it is expensive but goes a long way. 1x125ml bottle did all of my alloy panels - i chose to mix and then wipe on with the supplied cloth rather than spray, and it was easy, quick, and the finish is invisible once dry. Stands up to 2000F deg and resists salt corrosion - similar to aircraft protection products. I am glad that I paid a bit extra and used this rather than Sharkhide.

http://www.eastwood.com/exoarmour.html

[2FAST4U]

I wet sanded mine with 120 grit, then 220 grit, and finished with 320 grit

[JRL16]

Acetone will take all the ink markings off. I sanded mine with an orbital sander and then coated them with Sharkhide. I'm envious of all the builders that have them powder coated. I don't know how they don't scratch them with all the work needed to build these cars. Mine all have a brushed look which I'm glad I did as it is nearly impossible to notice any slight scratches.

[Dave Howard]

Like others, my bare panels were cleaned with acetone to remove the inkjet markings only. I also like the raw aluminum look, but after 20,000 miles of driving over the last 3 seasons, I have found it is impossible to keep the aluminum looking good. The next build will budget for additional powder coating of all visible aluminum pieces. Hoping the 25th anniversary model will included powered coated pieces similar to past anniversary offerings.

[canuck1]

All of my aluminum panels are raw. I cleaned them with acetone to get the ink markings off, that's it. Every so often, I wipe down the visible panels - really just a few in the engine compartment - with an old rag that has WD-40 on it and they all still look as nice as the day I installed them. The wheel wells and other areas have been left to gather patina.

Me too. Cleaned when I remember with rag & WD40. I have heat-reflective coating around the footbox areas. Only firewall and upper footbox portions with a little of the inside F-panels are really visible.

P.S. my frame powder coat probably has a few nicks and scratches underneath as well... If you're the kind of guy lying on your back trying to examine the underside of my frame tubes, I'm probably not the kind of guy you'd like to hang out with anyways!

Sean

[WIS89]

Y-B-

I powder coated all my visible panels with the exception of the aluminum in the cockpit as well as the trunk. I wanted to protect the aluminum panels in general, and I liked the powder coating in the engine bay. However, I wanted to leave the bare metal spartan look in the cockpit, and I just left the trunk to match. I have used acetone to clean up all the various the markings -- the ones from the factory, as well as my sharpie notes. I am not going to treat these panels, and I anticipate that they will receive a fair amount of scratches and such over time. I may just polish them up every now and again, although I haven't finalized my thoughts on that yet.

It is a bit unusual to do the panels this way, but my hope is that it will match the overall theme of my car. I hope this helped...

Regards,

Steve

[Jeff Kleiner]

Another option that's cheap and easy---mine aren't raw but kind of look like it.

The recipe:
---Clean with acetone or lacquer thinner to remove ink markings
---Run over them with gray Scotchbrite in one direction using uninterrupted strokes
---Clean again to remove residue
---2 or 3 coats of rattlecan "Crystal Clear" Rustoleum
---Bake panels that fit in the oven at 250 for 10-15 minutes (did I mention that my wife was out of town?) Larger panels get two 500 watt halogen lamps focused on them to help bake it in

After 10 years and 20 some thousand miles when I clean the road grime off once or twice a year they still look like day one.





Cheers,
Jeff



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