If there were ever any doubts, its now official, I've lost my mind.
I stripped the clear coat, well I stripped half the clear coat, the other half is gonna get it as soon as I recover from the smell of aluminum baked citrus.
Stripping the clear coat has helped...some...in certain areas. But there are a lot of areas that have corrosion, scratches, etc and it really just made those obvious. So part of the trailer looks better, the other part looks worse. In an effort to reduce the worse I decided to polish. Not fully, just the car buffer/alum polish method. It is helping and definitely makes the trailer more even in appearance. It is faster than the other methods but I have learned a few things along the way.
1-polishing is work, lots of work...and yes the car buffer method is less work but it is still work and the end results are not nearly as satisfying as the other methods.
The car buffer method basically reduces haze and removes the years of built up grime and oxidation. It does not 'cut' the metal so you really aren't doing a whole lot more than spit shining the aluminum. It does look better but since I am already going to be doing about half the work I think I would have been happier biting the bullet and going all the way to the Nuvite or Jestco methods. I will probably go ahead and finish with this method but I see more polishing in my future, maybe this winter.
2-there are no shortcuts. If you try, with any method, you will just be re-polishing the area you just polished.
3-take your time. When you can no longer feel your arms, its probably a good time to stop because, really, if you can't even hold the buffer you really aren't accom-polishing anything.
(see what I did there)
I have many hours of polishing left in my future so I'm sure I will have more do's (okay I'll be honest it will mostly be don'ts) to share.
What do you think, should I swap to the more intensive methods or finish what I have started? Bear in mind that it is almost summer here in South Alabama and Slim is 30' long.
some pics attached - the polished rear end and the line where the polishing starts/stops. Its pretty good at 100yards, any closer and you can see the problem areas, in some areas its hard to tell any difference up close.